Witnesses say Edwards, Harvick fight in garage

[October 10, 2008]  CONCORD, N.C. (AP) -- Greg Biffle isn't angry with teammate Carl Edwards for starting a 12-car crash at Talladega Superspeedway.

Neither is Matt Kenseth.

Kevin Harvick? Not quite over it.

Witnesses said Edwards and Harvick scuffled Thursday in the Nationwide Series garage at Lowe's Motor Speedway after Edwards walked into Harvick's garage stall and the two engaged in a heated argument.

Harvick appeared to try to walk away but, witnesses said, Edwards reached for his shoulder to turn him back around. Harvick then shoved Edwards, who stumbled onto the hood of Harvick's car, and the two had to be separated.

Witnesses claimed a member of Harvick's crew had Edwards in a headlock as numerous people tried to separate the two.

Harvick was unavailable for comment.

Edwards didn't deny the two argued, but wouldn't discuss the incident.

"The deal with me and Harvick is between me and him and there's nothing else to talk about," he said. "I'm not talking about that. That's just what it is. We know where each other stand and that's it."

Although photographers from CIA Stock Photography and Lowe's Motor Speedway caught the moment, both refused to show the photos to The Associated Press and said they had no plans to publish the pictures.

Edwards triggered the late crash Sunday when he tried to push Biffle as the three Roush Fenway Racing cars competed raced for the lead. But his bumper hooked the corner of Biffle's, sending Biffle into a slide directly into Kenseth.

Several championship contenders were caught in the melee, including Harvick, who had harsh words for Edwards and his strategy after the accident.

"I know that his fans won't be very proud of him sitting back there riding around like a pansy," Harvick said in a national TV interview. "If he had been racing all day, maybe he would have known how long the front of his car was."

The Charlotte Observer obtained a photo of a handwritten note Edwards gave Harvick's pilot before leaving Talladega.

In it, he used an expletive to "thank" Harvick for criticizing him on TV and sarcastically added, "I was really trying to screw up everyone's day. Love, Carl."

Biffle and Kenseth were upset with their teammate immediately following the accident, but said they were over it by the time they got to Lowe's.

"We can point fingers all day about what happened," Biffle said. "He understands that he made a mistake and there's nothing we can do about that now. Certainly he didn't want to wreck himself, because that's what he did, he wrecked himself.

"I don't know what else to state about it, but I'm not mad at him."

Kenseth, who argued with Edwards last fall at Martinsville, said he was initially upset about the accident but had moved past it.

"Our relationship is fine," Kenseth said. "I was disappointed. I thought that Carl knew better. He's been preaching the stuff about being careful and working together and teammates and all this stuff, so I was disappointed it happened, but yet it was an accident and that stuff will happen."

[Associated Press; By JENNA FRYER]

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