Harvick spices feud with Edwards; Petty's future tied to economy

A day after their scuffle, the talk Friday at Lowe's Motor Speedway was still about Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards.

 

On Thursday, Edwards approached Harvick in the Nationwide garage to talk. It escalated into an argument. Harvick went to walk away and Edwards grabbed him by the shoulder. Harvick shoved Edwards, who fell on the hood of Harvick's car. A member of Harvick's entourage then grabbed Edwards in a headlock before order was restored.

 

So, who would win a Harvick-Edwards fight?

 

"It would be tough,'' Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Friday. "Kevin never backed down from anybody. You know that Carl is pretty tough. It'd be quite interesting.''

 

It was Friday as Harvick and Edwards both spoke. Hear Harvick here. Listen to Edwards here.

 

"We were in our pit stall, protecting our turf,'' Harvick said. "You just got to be careful who you want to pick a fight with. If you want to pick a fight with the wrong person, sometimes it turns around and bites you no matter how big and tough you think you are.''

 

Harvick later said: "I could give two (expletive) about who Carl Edwards is and what he's in the race for.''

 

Harvick was asked if Edwards was easy to get inside his head during this title run. "That's not very hard to do,'' Harvick said.

 

Edwards talked more about his desire to get back to racing than this incident.

 

# Richard Petty says that Kyle Petty's future depends on the economy. There's been a lot of talk that Kyle Petty's last race could come at Phoenix this year. Richard Petty told me that the team's second car is "more or less'' Chad McCumbee's to lose. "That's the reason we want to run him this year, so OK, he's going to be our guy next year,'' Richard Petty said. "If it don't work out, we'll have to, again, go back ot the drawing board.''

 

Richard Petty said it's the team's goal to have two fulltime cars and that way they could run Kyle in a select number of races. Richard Petty admits the economy will dictate what happens.

 

"(Kyle's future) is up in the air beause we don't know about the economy, we don't know about our sponsors,'' Richard said. He also added that he doesn't think Kyle is ready to quit racing but is unsure if Kyle would race elsewhere. Again, Richard said, it goes back to the economy.

 

# Ray Evernham, who has a minority share in Gillett Evernham Motorsports, said he was not involved in the decision to release rookie Patrick Carpentier. Evernham stressed he's a minority partner in the team and hinted maybe that role could change to not being a part of the team.

 

"That's largely up to the Gillettes,'' Evernham said if he would remain with the team. "I want to help Mr. Gillette, and I'll do whatever I can to help him be successful, but I also want to puruse ... I'm emjoying my life at ESPN. I'm enjoying a little bit of semi-retirement. I want to help as much as I can, but I also want to make sure I have creditibility with the viewers and that's important to me.''

 

Evernham said he got an inkling on Monday night that the team would discuss Carpentier's situation the next day. Evernham said he prepared his thoughts for a meeting and then found out Tuesday morning a decision on Carpentier had been made.

 

# Kurt Busch is again using the new Dodge engine this weekend. He first used it at Kansas two weeks ago.

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