Juan Pablo Montoya was unapologetic about his intentions in spinning out Kyle Busch Sunday in New Hampshire. Getty Images

RICHMOND, Virginia -- And now, NASCAR has a feud of international proportions involving none other than points leader Kyle Busch and former Formula One driver Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia.

When Montoya took exception to Busch driving him up the track late in Sunday's rain-shortened race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, he decided to retaliate by spinning out Busch under caution. Montoya blatantly turned into Busch's car and even admitted it was intentional afterwards.

That's all NASCAR officials needed to know as they summoned Montoya into the "back of the hauler" and informed him that he would be docked two laps for the move, giving him a 32nd place finish.

"Honestly, I have no idea (what happened). I got a run on him with 50 laps to go and got to his outside and he kept coming up a little bit," Busch said after the incident. "I didn't turn down into him and I barely touched his quarter-panel and got by him. We came to that caution flag and he thought he beat me to the flag. I was just trying to get around (Dario Franchitti) who was in front of us, touched (Montoya) on the door and he turned left and spun me out. I don't know what his beef is."

When Montoya turned left into Busch's Toyota, he spun it into his own car, causing damage on both machines. But that didn't seem to matter to Montoya. After all, he was never intimidated by the likes of Michael Schumacher in Formula One, so why should he be afraid of Kyle Busch in NASCAR?

"He hit me under caution. He hit me under green and I retaliated," Montoya said after meeting with NASCAR officials. "Did I go too far in retaliating? Yeah. I think they are giving me a penalty and it's okay for what I did. The only thing I told them was that they are always saying be very careful not to do anything under caution. The only reason I did that was I was just defending myself."

NASCAR officials told reporters on Sunday night that no further penalties would be issued in the incident.

"On the restart, I got around the outside of him in Turn 2 and he just went wide like I wasn't even there," Montoya said. "Then we touched each other and I got beside him to the next corner and he starts banging on me, like he was trying to wreck me. He runs good? Yeah. He has great cars? Yeah. I thought we had a decent car today and I don't appreciate when people race me like that."

If this feud were able to continue through the rest of the season, it would be a Battle Royale for NASCAR. But these are two professional drivers who will likely put their feelings for each other aside, at least on the race track. Busch continues to lead the Sprint Cup standings, so Sunday's feud with Montoya is merely a bump in the road. He was already struggling with a Toyota that didn't seem to respond to changes.

"It wasn't something that was going to get fixed on the race track," Busch said. "We needed to go to the garage and work on it. We missed something all weekend and we pretty much knew it was going to be a dismal day, but we tried to make the most of it. If we would have stayed out there, then we could have won the race -- we could have been where the 2 (Kurt Busch) car was.

"I didn't feel like that was the way to win a race, just to stay out and play by the rain. I didn't feel like we had a shot with the guys that were going to be behind us. We did what we did to try to pass some more cars."

The good thing about NASCAR's grueling schedule that seems to never end is a bad race can be overcome one week later. So as Busch and Montoya head to Daytona Beach for Saturday night's Coke Zero 400, there will be plenty of opportunity to make up for their dispute and watch other feuds begin.

Danica defends herself

Danica Patrick was bewildered when she heard the criticism for her driving at Iowa Speedway, especially from Indianapolis 500 winner Scott Dixon who called her "a menace."

"Yeah, it's surprising," Patrick said. "It's especially surprising that he was only behind me on the last restart. And he flew by me. So that's the only time he was near me. I don't understand."

And while Dixon didn't have anything further to say about Patrick this past weekend at Richmond, he didn't regret making his comment at Iowa.

"No," Dixon said. "Why would I?"

Patrick realizes she has a big target on her back, but the recent round of criticism in regard to blocking on the short tracks has left her wondering why she is being singled out. And prior to taking the track at Richmond International Raceway last weekend, she was asked, which was a bigger insult -- to be called a "menace" by Dixon or the "new Scott Sharp of the IndyCar Series" by Ed Carpenter?

"They're both bad," Patrick said. "Anybody will agree with that. So, again, I don't know where the comments came from. I really don't. That's really all I can say."

Sharp was a long-time IndyCar driver known for blocking on the race track.

Usually polished and professional, Patrick was at a loss for how she became involved in her latest controversy.