Motorsports

They couldn't just get along

By BRANT JAMES
Published August 18, 2007

Though Juan Pablo Montoya and Scott Pruett soothed things over after Montoya's bump-and-pass for victory in the Busch Series race in Mexico City on March 4, things were not well inside Chip Ganassi Racing for a couple of days. Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch have traded jabs on the track and barbs through the media for two years; starting in 2008 they'll be teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing.

They're neither the first nor the last teammates who have been much less than friends.

Rusty Wallace vs. Ryan Newman

Old-school baller vs. New Age hero

Wallace, the 1989 series champion, helped legitimize Roger Penske's stock car team by joining as partner/driver in 1991 and didn't feel respect from Newman, a Purdue-educated structural engineer who came aboard in 2000. The pet project and like-a-son prodigy of team president Don Miller, Newman dwarfed Wallace immediately on the track, winning 12 races and 35 poles from 2002-05 with all his book-learnin' and such, as NASCAR became more engineer-driven. Wallace, meanwhile, slumped until breaking a 114-race winless streak in 2004 and qualifying for the Chase for the Championship in 2005. Squabbling, they were in need of a divorce by the time Wallace retired after the 2005 season.

Kevin Harvick vs. Robby Gordon

SoCal hothead vs. SoCal hothead

Gordon, an aggressive open-wheel veteran, passed Richard Childress Racing teammate Kevin Harvick under caution with 10 laps left on the road course at Sonoma to win in 2003. In 2001 at the same track, three weeks before they became teammates, a lapped Harvick had spun the race-leading Gordon with 14 laps left, allowing Tony Stewart to pass for the eventual victory. The volatile chemistry Childress had created to stoke competition led to open carping between the pair, who were teammates just one more season when Childress and Gordon made a supposedly amicable but awkward split in 2004.

Tony Stewart vs. Denny Hamlin

Judge/jury/executioner vs. Fast young dude

Hamlin, 26, had avoided Stewart's glare by avoiding his path and staying out of trouble. Apparently that all changed during the Pepsi 400 this year, and all he had to do was get rammed from behind by Stewart. Hamlin's No. 11 Chevrolet was sent careening as he led off Turn 4, and Stewart's machine bounced into the wall in the aftermath, leading Stewart to chastise his teammate for first brake-checking, then slowing for some reason. Hamlin, irked, refused to allow Stewart to lay blame on him, as have so many in the past for the sake of appeasement. The insurance company wouldn't have bought that one, either.

[Last modified August 18, 2007, 02:17:41]