Drivers weigh in on Edwards-Kenseth incident

By SceneDaily Staff Report
Thursday, October 25, 2007
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STREETER LECKA / GETTY IMAGES

Drivers Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick are offering different perspectives on the confrontation between Roush Fenway Racing teammates Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth following Sunday's Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

Martin views the incident as simply a boiling over of different personalities.

Harvick, however, contends the altercation may reflect deeper divisions inside the Roush Fenway team.

"These are really intense guys who have a passion for their sport," Martin said on his Sirius Satellite Radio Show show Wednesday, according to a transcript released by Sirius. "Their emotions run high, and by the way, their personalities don't mix that good. At the end of the day that's not really going to affect the performance as long as it's contained."

Martin, who was a teammate to both drivers at what used to be Roush Racing, said he had spoken to both drivers after the incident, which was captured by Speed cameras and led to a public apology by Edwards on Tuesday.

"My advice to Carl was just he's going to have to make his best effort to diffuse the information around this thing," Martin said. "They don't have to be best friends. One thing about Matt Kenseth is he rarely makes mistakes, and he doesn't have great tolerance for mistakes around him. And Matt's pretty much going to hold the line here. "

Martin said Edwards needs to be the one to approach Kenseth. "I think it'll be up to Carl to go to Matt and find common ground where they can both say, 'Look, that was a bad deal. We're going to have an understanding of how we race and who gives who what when. And we're going to coexist and get along,'" Martin said. "These are great guys, great people, great race car drivers with a lot of passion, and once in awhile you're going to have run-ins."

Harvick saw it a different way.

"You know, I think that the deal that happened after last week, it obviously brought out the true feelings of all the teammates towards Carl at Roush Racing, and obviously none of them really respect, or it seems like, like him," Harvick said on a conference call Wednesday with media on the West Coast. "So whatever has happened there is obviously something that I'm sure they will handle internally."

Harvick admitted that in as competitive a sport as NASCAR, sometimes teammates have run-ins on the track.

"You have moments that you're not happy with them, and they are not happy with you," Harvick said. "So that's just the nature of the beast."

Martin compared relationships in the Nextel Cup garage to "high school."

"You've got the people you like, you've got the people you tolerate and you've got the people you can't stand," Martin said. "It's the same thing."

Martin said he expects Edwards and Kenseth to work out their problems.

"Carl is very respectful. He respects a lot of things," Martin said. "... He wants to do the right thing. He wants ultimately to be successful, but behind that he wants to do a lot of the right thing. And I think his drive to be successful puts the right thing, it takes a back seat to that and once in a while that ruffles somebody's feathers around him, whether it be Matt or someone else on the race track."

Mentioned Drivers: Carl Edwards

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2009 Sprint Cup Race for the Chase Standings

Driver Standings after the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500

1 Jimmie Johnson 6492
2 Mark Martin -108
3 Jeff Gordon -169
4 Kurt Busch -211
5 Tony Stewart -285
6 Juan Pablo Montoya -289
7 Greg Biffle -321
8 Denny Hamlin -352
9 Ryan Newman -411
10 Kasey Kahne -476
11 Carl Edwards -520
12 Brian Vickers -666

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