Kevin Harvick is still upset with good friend Tony Stewart, who ran into him in the closing laps at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and ruined what should have been a second-place finish.
"He's called. I just haven't answered," Harvick said yesterday between practice sessions for the inaugural Busch Series race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.
The contact between the two cars with 10 laps to go in the race Sunday damaged Harvick's front fender and ruined his Chevrolet's handling. Stewart drove off to victory, Harvick faded to seventh, and the difference cost him 24 points in the standings and $116,439 in prize money. As they head to Pocono Raceway for this weekend's Nextel Cup race, the duo will have to work through Harvick's hard feelings. Stewart admitted right after the race that he had made a mistake by running into Harvick while attempting to retake the lead.
"If I'm going to preach about give and take, it's stupid for me to not do the same thing," Stewart said. "If I want people to race me with respect, I'm going to race people with respect. I didn't mean to get into Kevin. That wasn't my intention. There was no logical reason to get into him. That was a mistake on my part."
Many drivers say Stewart doesn't practice what he preaches. That seemed to be Harvick's take.
"If you're going to preach it, you've got to back it," Harvick said. "I understand he probably made a mistake, but when you're on the receiving end of it, it's not a part that I take lightly."
Formula One
Fernando Alonso can overtake teammate Lewis Hamilton in the season standings and their McLaren team will take its off-circuit feud with Ferrari back onto the track this weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest.
Alonso vaulted within two points of leader Hamilton with his victory July 22 at the European Grand Prix in Germany. The win was Alonso's third this season, and cut Hamilton's lead to 70-68 as the English rookie missed the podium for the first time in 10 starts. Hamilton started from 10th place after crashing in qualifying and finished ninth in the race.
Besides the season-long on-track duel between the teams, McLaren and Ferrari are also embroiled in a bitter dispute before FIA -- motorsport's world governing body -- concerning leaked information and sabotage.
The bickering was renewed yesterday, when McLaren boss Ron Dennis attacked Ferrari for continuing the dispute over leaked confidential information and accused the Italian team of having an "illegal competitive advantage" at the Australian Grand Prix earlier this season.