Boys Have at It, Just Don’t Talk About It

Thirteen years ago the line was uttered by NASCAR brass in response to accusations that the sport had become sterile and that they were policing on-track disputes too heavy-handedly.

During the NASCAR Media Tour, Robin Pemberton spoke to the assembled pundits and explained that the sanctioning body was going to let the drivers police themselves and, provided it didn’t become dangerous, the folks in Daytona would keep their hands out of it.

While the policy has seemed to back off some in recent years, there is still a belief that drivers can take care of incidents without NASCAR stepping in. Unfortunately for Denny Hamlin, if you make a public statement about what you tried to do to a fellow competitor, NASCAR will hit you in the pocketbook.

As the sport gets ready to head back to North Wilkesboro Speedway we are reminded of the famous rivalry between Dale Earnhardt and Geoff Bodine. There was a period where those two drivers could not get near each other on the track without intentionally wrecking the other.

The rivalry was immortalized in the movie “Days of Thunder.” The famous meeting that took place, in Daytona, with Big Bill France and the two drivers was the basis for the scenes in the movie where Cole Trickle and Rowdy Burns tear up their rental cars en route to dinner. That was a situation where Daytona tried to let the boys have at it and there was just no end in sight.

Earnhardt had rivalries like that with a few drivers. Remember the “Pass in the Grass,” although it wasn’t really a pass? Earnhardt and Bill Elliott were after each other for quite some time and, while they didn’t do too much wrecking, they certainly didn’t cut each other any slack. Earnhardt also had a feud with Darrell Waltrip. It culminated in the famous wreck at Richmond Raceway. The drivers were able to settle their differences on the track without NASCAR stepping in.

More recently we have seen Kurt Busch and Jimmy Spencer working out their differences. From Indianapolis to Bristol, they rattled each other’s cages but they were able to work through their differences without NASCAR having to bring down fines or penalties. That doesn’t mean that the drivers didn’t get a lecture from the big trailer after an incident or two.

Hamlin has ruffled a few feathers in his career but he generally does it within the confines of the old school “unwritten rules.”…