Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards Begin Rivalry

NASCAR couldn’t have done any better if they had hired Don King to promote the final 12 races of the year.

If NASCAR wanted a rivalry, they have one now after Saturday night’s Sharpie 500 at Bristol.

“I tried to get him back, but I thought better of it.” ~ Kyle Busch

It’s coming down to a shootout between Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards – with jabs and punches being thrown from both sides.

Kyle Busch felt that Edwards rubbed him and moved him out of the racing groove unfairly after Edwards applied his Ford’s chrome horn to Busch’s Toyota with 30 laps to go.

“The way this works is, you know, a real smart racer explained it to me this way after he wrecked me,” said Edwards, “and I was real mad. He said, “I just had to look at your rear bumper and decide if you would do to me before, and you had, and so it was a real simple decision.”

“Earlier in the year Kyle was a lot faster than me and got to my back bumper and just smoked the back bumper of my car and sent me up the racetrack, and after that said, ‘Sorry, man, my car was just faster.’ ”

“So in my mind, I had to ask myself when I went down there in the corner, should I lift and brake early and do the best I can, or should I just kind of give him a little tap and see what happens? So that’s the way it went, and that’s the decision I made, and you know, I’d do it again.”

Busch, who had dominated the race most of the evening, had to collect his car and move up the race track as Edwards swept by for the lead.

Kyle Busch would chase Carl Edwards to the checkered flag, never to regain the lead.

Then on the cool down lap Kyle pulled alongside Carl and bumped into the side of the No. 99 Ford.

It appeared to cause Carl Edwards to lose control of his Ford, and as he was trying to save the car he hit Busch’s No. 18 Toyota in the left rear sending Busch into a 360 degree spin.

Busch seemed to be looking for some payback following the spin, but cooler heads prevailed. Kyle accelerated quickly for a moment then dove into the pits and parked his car.

Kyle Busch was angry with Edwards when he climbed from his car after the race. “If that’s the way he wants to race, we’ll race him in the Chase that way,” said Busch.

Busch was highly critical of Edwards driving style. “You know, to pass a guy, to hit him getting into the corners and chatter the tires is what he did,” said Busch. “I tried to get him back, but I thought better of it and tried to pull down and pass him back. But I didn’t have a good enough car to stick. ”

Even the normally cool headed J. D. Gibbs had a warning for Edwards after the race. “You reap what you sow,” said Gibbs to Edwards.

Busch was immediately summoned to the NASCAR trailer for a conference with Mike Helton and John Darby of NASCAR.

Busch was highly critical of Edwards driving style. “You know, to pass a guy, to hit him getting into the corners and chatter the tires is what he did,” said Busch. “I tried to get him back, but I thought better of it and tried to pull down and pass him back. But I didn’t have a good enough car to stick. “