As the laps wound down on Sunday, it appeared that Busch�s radio appearance would indeed bring good luck as he was holding the lead in the Michigan 400. However, this was turning into yet another in what is becoming a long line of �feul milage� races, and the calculations out of the Busch camp had the #97 coming up a few laps dry. Worse yet Ryan Newman is coming through the field fast and closing in on Busch. Newman also played his fuel strategy correctly, sacrificing track position to pit on the final lap of the previous caution period. Newman would pass Busch before the #97 is forced to pit on the white flag lap � relegating Busch to an 18th place finish. Still, it was worth the gamble � as anyone not named Matt Kenseth is currently out of the championship picture. So Busch�s luck had turned totally bad, yet.

On the way back to his garage Busch (with his headgear off apparently) would run out of gas again, worse yet was who was directly behind him with his crosshairs right on him. Jimmy Spencer, the man who never forgets. Turns out the two had traded paint earlier in the event. It seemed innocent enough at the time but enough of an altercation for Spencer to finally snap, with the controversial driver getting into the rear of the #97, causing it to spin out. What happened next would be perhaps the biggest beat-down in the long, colorful history of the sport. Without giving thought to jeopardizing his status for the one race in Bristol he actually had a chance to win, Spencer gets out of his car and to the window of the #97 and proceeds with a pre-meditated surgical strike on the thin face of Busch. One punch re-arranges Kurt�s nose, a couple more get his eyes, and yet another lands flush on the side of the driver young enough to be Spencer�s son. How no cameras happened to be in the area was a miracle in itself, missing out on an assault straight out of the Stone Cold Austin playbook. Any more big right hands from Big Jim may have sent Kurt to the promised land. Talk about yet another reason for getting that overhead escape hate. Anyone suffering worse karma this week would have had to been an aspiring doctor in residence trying to get on an elevator.

Spencer would indeed received a well earned one race suspension, and will miss the one weekend out of the year where he is always the biggest factor. So how did we get to this point. Here is a brief synopsis of Busch�s 3+ year tenure with Rosch Racing�

February 2001: In his first Daytona 500, Busch draws the ire of Dale Earnhardt Sr. during the race perhaps changing the course of NASCAR history. It is debatable whether Busch got in the way of the #3 enough to hurt his track position in the closing laps.

November 2001: Busch is spun out by Spencer (then driving the Travis Carter #26) during a race in Phoenix. Busch had not yet established himself as one of the sports rising stars so not much was made of it at the time.

February 2002: Busch ruffles more feathers during his second appearance in the Daytona 500, with Jeff Gordon at one point referring to Kurt as �a wildman�.

March 2002: The day that Busch officially arrived on the NASCAR scene, as he pulls a bump and run in the waning laps on Spencer to win his first Cup race at Bristol. At the time, it was looked at as a brass move by Busch and didn�t warrant much criticism. However Busch did make note that he had an I.O.U on Spencer from the Phoenix race.

May 2002: Anyone wonder why Robby Gordon chimed in by offering to pay Spencer�s fine??? Look no further than the 2002 All-Star race when Busch spun out Gordon so there could be another re-start in an effort to catch eventual winner Ryan Newman. Busch admitted as much afterwards, drawing the ire of Richard Childress � who vowed to beat the daylights out of anyone who ever takes out one of his drivers on purpose.

July 2002: More trouble at Daytona. Busch receives a one lap penalty, and earns four additional laps in the penalty box after berating NASCAR officials over his radio frequency.

August 2002: The infamous Brickyard 400 incident. Busch has to take a provisional, and while moving up through the field gets punted into the SAFER barrier by Spencer. Afterwards, Busch makes his �decrepit has-been� statement towards Spencer, who will respond by saying that Busch needs a lot of maturing, and that includes �watching his mouth�.

February 2003: Another Daytona 500, and more controversy for Busch, and for the second time in three years it was with the driver of the Goodwrench car. After several run-ins with the #29 over the course of the weekend, Kevin Harvick refers to Busch as �Rubberhead�, a play on the #97 car�s sponsor.

As you can see, Busch has been far from being an angel during his brief career in the sport. Busch himself would receive probation as a result of the events from this past Sunday. But after further investigation, it is for more than being on the receiving end of Spencer�s fist. Again, we turn to the radio frequency chatter. On lap 135, Busch would make a disparaging remark towards Spencer, and admitted tried to flatten the (expletive) fender of the #7. The pit told Busch that he had just missed, with Kurt replying that close only counts �in horseshoes and hand grenades�. Busch then adds that �he doesn�t want to play with that clown�.

Those conversations aren�t exactly private, with in-car audio of top drivers being offered on pay-per-view cable as well as over the internet. There�s little doubt that those comments made their way back to Spencer. Once again, Busch was running his mouth and this time Spencer decided to do something about it while worrying about the consequences later.

Now for some FAQ�s about the Busch/Spencer feud.

WHY DO THESE TWO DESPISE EACH OTHER SO MUCH??? Well, it�s a classic example of �old school� v. �new school�. Say what you want about Spencer, but he broke into the sport in the late 1980�s only after years of kicking around numerous backwater tracks in the Northeast. Spencer is your classic throwback to the renegade early days of the sport. His family�s alleged illegal selling of used tires last year even adds to that intrigue, a modern day version of the old bootleggers.

Meanwhile Busch represents the new wave � a West Coast driver with handsome looks who found racing success at a young age. Not to mention that his younger brother attempted to brake into racing�s big-time at an even younger age. And rather than being the backwoods hunting and fishing type, Busch is very well spoken and rubs some of the sports older crowd the wrong way sometimes in the process.

And then there is the level of success between the two. In 15 years Spencer has all of two Cup victories to his credit. Busch has seven in just the last year and a half. In the process it can be said that Busch has obtained a scent of arrogance which burns a craw into Spencer.

SHOULD THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES BEEN INVOLVED??? Many feel not, since the incident occurred on the �playing field�. That is subject to debate. To compare to other sports, lets say Jason Giambi charges the mound after being nailed by a Pedro Martinez fastball. Or Tracy McGrady and Ron Artest trade punches after a hard foul in the NBA. Then that�s on the playing field and the accepted practice is for the various sports leagues to handle the matter in-house in regard to fines and suspensions.

But what if Giambi waits until after the game then assaults Pedro in the opposing clubhouse when he least expects it??? Or what if McGrady and Artest decide to have at it under the stands??? Then it is no longer on the playing field, and could fall under the jurisdiction of local law enforcement. In this case, the locals saw Spencer�s attack and thus had to investigate. I doubt anything much will come of this as far as criminal charges are concerned � but then again it was kind of off the playing field after the event was over.

WILL THERE BE LONG-RANGING RAMIFICATIONS FOR SPENCER??? The timing could had been much better, especially considering Bristol added a truck race to this weeks slate which Spencer was slated to enter. Spencer is the defending champion of the Busch race and would had been a contender in the truck race. This is also the one venue that Spencer has a legitimate chance to win on the Cup circuit, scoring top-twelves in the last three Bristol races.

But what�s far worse is that the #7 team is looking for a sponsor for next season. Right now who would be interested in hooking up with a driver with a resume as checkered as Spencer. Jimmy might want to start comparing notes with Tony Raines and Ken Schrader on going sans sponsorship.

If NASCAR were more like college basketball than college football, Ryan Newman would have more than a fighting chance right now. His five wins, along with three wins in his last six races would qualify him easily for March Madness, where he would be the classic �team nobody wants to play�. However, NASCAR�s point system smacks of College football, where a couple of early losses eliminates anyone from national championship contention. While Newman is clearly the favorite on all superspeedways, Matt Kenseth remains the Ohio State of the circuit � not winning his games impressively but continuing to grind away while building his point lead either more. You can argue the system, but something has to be said for a driver who has completed all of two laps this season.

It was a weird weekend with the likes of Kevin LePage (#57 car), Jason Leffler (#0), and Christian Fittipaldi all qualifying in the top ten. Predictably none of those three finished near the top. Here are the driver recaps�

Ryan Newman - It simply would not be a Newman win without Krissie Boyle news, as Newman proposed to her on July 29th - two days after the Pocono win. Guess Ryan wasn't going to pop the question until he had four wins under his belt. The fifth win ties Matt Kenseth's total from last year, just an indication on the scary power of this team that has now come to fruition.

Jimmie Johnson � Led the most laps and was in the hunt late, but was bit even more than Busch in pit strategy roulette � being forced to pit with two laps remaining and finishing a lap down in 27th.

Kevin Harvick � Led a banner weekend for RCR by placing second, leading 46 laps and in the process moving up to fourth in the point standings, and is now only 18 points behind third place Jeff Gordon.

Greg Biffle � Had only averaged a 22nd place finish in five races since Daytona, but had a tremendous weekend here qualifying 12th and finishing fourth. Look for more contending races down the stretch. Biffle�s name also came up during the week as a possible replacement for Bill Elliott if he elects to retire at the end of the season. I don�t quite see either side of that equation, as I look for Elliott to hang on for another season. Also Biffle has a long-standing relationship with Rosch Racing and I don�t see him moving elsewhere.

Tony Stewart � Did not qualify well but had the fastest car for much of the early going before settling on a third place finish.

Robby Gordon � Placed sixth and is now a legitimate top-ten driver. Impressively has placed seventh or better in six of the last eight races.

Steve Park � Told you it was a great day for RCR, as Park places a season best fifth � his second top ten in his last five races. Barring a Dale Jr. sighting, Park is very much in the mix for piloting the #30 for next year.

Michael Waltrip � A typical Waltrip race as he ran quietly in the top ten all day, eventually finishing seventh.

Ken Schrader � Nearly every driver has his day at least once a year, and the #49�s number came up this week with an impressive eighth place showing.

Johnny Benson � Another driver that has been off the radar for nearly the entire year who scores only his second top ten of the year. MIS is Benson�s home track so it wasn�t a huge surprise. Still, another patented late season run could be in store for the #10.

Matt Kenseth � Did not have a stout car, in fact Kenseth himself admitted that this was only a top 15-20 type car. But Kenseth did his job keeping the #17 on the lead lap and increasing his point lead to a near insurmountable +328. Best chance of him losing the point title would be if the blimp were to crash on him during driver introductions.

Elliott Sadler � The #3 car returns to NASCAR, but only because the �8� was removed from Sadler�s car en route to a 12th place finish. The more significant news is that former Dale Jarrett Crew Chief Todd Parrott resurfaces as the new CC for the #38.

Dale Jarrett � Top ten for much of the day and led as late as Lap 157, but came up short on fuel and wound up back in 23rd.

Jeff Gordon � Was burned by a short-pit when the caution came off immediately afterwards and soon found himself a lap down. Gordon was never able to make up the lap and lost another en route to a 30th place finish.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. � Caught the bad break of the race when Rusty Wallace faked going onto pit road, then veered in front the #8. Junior would cut a tire shortly afterwards and would place eight laps down in 32nd.

Jamie McMurray � Had an extremely tight race car early on and would eventually wind up in the wall. McMurray makes it back out to run some laps and places 36th.

Bobby LaBonte � Year has slowly taken a turn for the worse with another blown engine, finishing 37th.

Just a decade ago, it was still a fairly intimate venue on the NASCAR circuit, with the Tennessee hills still very visible over much of the speedway. Today it is a prime-time cauldron of over 150,000, and a ticket harder to get than the Super Bowl and Final Four combined. Anything can and will happen, the top three of the 2001 Spring race consisted of Elliott Sadler, John Andretti, and Jeremy Mayfield. And amidst all the bumping and banging fuel mileage could come into play once again.

It would had been very interesting whom Rosch would had sent out to play enforcer on Spencer. My guess would had been Greg Biffle, who is kind of the checking line for that team anyways. Ted Musgrave replaces Spencer in the #7, but even without Jimmy expect plenty of fireworks throughout a long, eventful evening. Potential driver feuds to flare up (get the heel pads ready) are as follows�

Jeff Gordon v. Rusty Wallace � In a battle of two drivers starving for a victory, Gordon executed a perfect bump-n-run to defeat Rusty last year. Rest assured that Rusty (one of Bristol�s most successful drivers) has not forgotten that one.

Jeff Gordon v. Kevin Harvick and/or Dale Jr. � And don�t think Gordon has forgotten about the final lap two weeks ago, with the aftermath revealing just home much Gordon�s hair line has receded. Any contact with Jeff and either Harvick or Junior could be a blockbuster.

Dale Jr. v. Ward Burton � We all know about Ward�s passion for hunting. Well last year Burton was looking to hunt down some very big game after being taken out by the #8. Ward through his heel pads at Junior, then would say later that �he wish he had something else to shoot�.

Kurt Busch v. Robby Gordon � Busch comes into the race as the favorite, coming off finishes of first, sixth, and first at this track. Robby could very well play the role of enforcer on Busch, as the #97 looks to be a marked man.

Robby Gordon v. Jimmie Johnson � But Robby also needs to watch his own back, last year he earned a two lap penalty after punting JJ (�I missed a shift�) on a restart.

Kevin Harvick v. Greg Biffle � Things have been way quiet since between these two since Harvick�s celebrated leap off a car towards Biffle following the Busch race in the Spring of �02.

Tony Stewart v. Anyone - This is a volcano long overdue to erupt, not to mention a driver that once tried to climb into the moving car of a competitor during a caution. My money is on the #20 here.

Of course any driver in the field is liable to lose it in this race, even against other drivers they have no apparent history with. It only takes a matter of seconds to make enemies for life at this place. Hell, even Kenseth could find himself in the middle of something.