In the movie Days of Thunder Harry Hogge said to Cole Trickle: “No, no, he didn’t slam you, he didn’t bump you, he didn’t nudge you. He rubbed you. And rubbin’, son, is racin’.”

Rubbing may be racing but wrecking is not racing.

There is a code of ethics in racing just like any other sport or business.

It’s OK to nudge a driver out of the way, but turning them into the infield or into the wall is not racing.

Joey Logano learned that lesson when he crashed into Peyton Sellers at the All Star Showdown at Irwindale. That was not rubbing or racing. That was wrecking.

When Kyle Bush slid into Dale Jr’s car at Richmond costing Junior the race win that was not rubbing that was wrecking.

And when Junior paid Kyle back the next race at Richmond that was still not rubbing, that was wrecking.

There’s a fine line in NASCAR between rubbing someone and wrecking them.

Dale Earnhardt used to be the master at banging on someone’s rear bumper just hard enough to disrupt their concentration before he passed them.

That’s rubbing and that’s okay.

But when a driver puts his bumper to the rear of another car hard enough to lift the wheels off the ground and increase the rpm by a couple thousand that’s not rubbing and that’s just uncalled for.

When a driver puts his right front fender on the left rear quarter panel of another car and spins another driver into the infield that’s not rubbing, that’s wrecking.

Rubbing is when two cars are racing door handle to door handle and neither driver will give an inch. They may rub each other but sooner or later the faster car gets by and nobody gets wrecked and nobody is spun out.

Rubbing has always been part of NASCAR racing and probably always will be. But when a driver has to wreck somebody to win that’s just not racing.

After all, would you rather see Dale Jr. wreck Kyle Busch to win the race — or would you rather see Junior simply out-run and out-drive him?

Okay — maybe Kyle Busch is not the best example to use when asking that question.

Dale Jr National Guard Zippo

Subscribe to our newsletter.

We’ll let you know when new stories like this are added.

You’ll get racing updates about once a week. We’ll never share your email address with anyone, and you can unsubscribe at any time. Privacy policy