Kyle Busch's Nationwide win overshadowed by massive fight on pit road

By Jerry Jordan

Motorsports Editor

CONCORD, N.C. — Kyle Busch was a dominant force for much of the CarQuest Auto Parts 300 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, leading 86 of 200 laps. But as Busch was trying to celebrate his win with a burnout on the fronthstretch, the cameras 

were trained on pit road and everyone's attention was focused on the fight that broke out between the No. 88 JR Motorsports team driven by Brad Keselowski, who finished third,

 and the team of the No. 20 Z-Line Toyota driven by Denny Hamlin for Joe Gibbs Racing, who finished second.

Hamlin took a cheap shot at Keselowski under the final caution of the evening and bashed in the front right fender of Keselowski's Chevrolet by turning into him. And when the race was over Keselowski's crew went over to the No. 20 car and all hell broke loose. Several people were knocked around as race officials and crew members tried to separate their teammates. 

After the melee, both teams, the drivers and the crew chiefs along with several other people were summoned to the NASCAR Nationwide Series hauler.

Asked why he hit Keseloski under caution, Hamlin replied, "I retaliated, I gave him right back everything that he gave me," claiming that Keselowski had hit him first."Well, my complaint was, and I was fully intending on talking to him after the race regardless of what happened," Hamlin said. "But there are situations where … just give a guy two inches to let him clear and don't hang on his right rear quarter panel

because it just gets frustrating. Then the guys get pissed off and he races too hard. I said at the end of that race that I was going to do whatever it takes to make that 88's job the hardest to get around me. I will block to let the No. 32 win if I have to because of the way he race me earlier in the race. If a guy has got everything but two inches on me let him go because he's got there for a reason.

"There are many times that I would let him go earlier in the race. He'd slide up in the middle and I would get him in the corner. Besides that it was almost to the end of the race. I had a great run on him and he slid all the way up from the bottom to the top and cut my nose off and that pisses drivers off. That pisses drivers off and I learned as a rookie, if you make a guy who's been doing this a little harder, if you make their job hard they are gonna make yours 10 times harder. Brad's got enough talent to be in the (Sprint) Cup Series and he will be there in a few years. But, I don't know if it is just these short races that he has been in but you just can't, you shouldn't race like that. You can but it will hurt you in the future."

Hamlin did say that he did not condone his crew fighting with the No. 88 team after the race.

"Those guys look out for each other every week on pit road, they don't need to be down here fighting," Hamlin said.

Keselowski saw the on-track incident differently than Hamlin and believes that he has to take advantage of every opportunity that he can to win a race. He did not say if he hit Hamlin under the caution flag.

"I race one day a week. I don't race twice a week," Keselowski said. " I have one day a week to prove myself. I have 200 laps, not 400. I have 200. I have to take every opportunity that I have to prove myself, prove myself to JR Motorsports, prove myself to the NAVY and I make the most of every lap."

Kerry Tharp, NASCAR's Director of Communications for Competition, said, NASCAR is reviewing all available video and could make a ruling next week regarding any penalties that might result from the pit road incident.