It's early, but NASCAR temperatures already are hot

	Jeff Gordon wasn't a happy camper following Sunday's race at Bristol. Doug Benc/Getty Images

Forget what the calendar says. For NASCAR, the long hot summer is already here. The verbal sniping that started after the Bud Shootout in February boiled over into NASCAR's version of March Madness this weekend on the short track at Bristol.

And put the emphasis on Madness.

It started on Friday. Kevin Harvick, with leftover business from last Monday's race in Atlanta, tossed a verbal brickbat when he said, "I think I'd have probably whooped Kurt Busch before now.... I'd still like to whip his ass. Before the year is over, he'll make a fool out of Roger Penske [Busch's car's owner]."

Obviously, Busch didn't make a fool out of Penske on Sunday, as his bump-and-run on then-leader Matt Kenseth led to victory at the Food City 500. But Harvick, who finished second, was not about to retract his comments about Busch.

"I meant exactly what I said," Harvick said. "I am not going to take it out on the race cars when we are on the track. If I have to, I will take it out on him. He took a cheap shot at me last week ... and that isn't something that goes over well. I meant every word and stand behind everything I said."

Harvick had plenty of company when it came to feeling angry. Kenseth, of course, felt like he had victory unfairly taken away by Busch, his former teammate.

"He hit me and moved me out of the way.... He hit me so hard I did everything but wreck," Harvick said. "I don't think I could have done that to him and brought my trophy home and felt good tonight and been smiling and sleeping. But that's just me."

What should have been a very happy Kurt Busch in the postrace interview turned into an internal struggle to say the right things while standing up to Kenseth's and Harvick's comments.

"Did this week start Monday or did it start Friday? When did Harvick have his little issue? Let's just ice both questions at once and say there's no way that either one of those drivers is going to take away the fact that the Miller Lite Dodge won today," Busch said.

Busch said that Kenseth "got tight" in between turns 1 and 2, allowing the No. 2 car to nudge the No. 17 out of the way.

"Maybe I bumped him," Busch said. "I've been bumped before and had a win taken away. I don't sit there and cry about it. I don't sit there and say, 'Maybe I'm going to go wreck him the next week.' If I get bumped by Kenseth the next week, that's cool."