Trouble at Red Bull Racing?

June 28, 5:06 PMDetroit NASCAR ExaminerJosh Lobdell

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Before we judge this too harshly, let us take a look at the incident in question for Saturday’s Camping World RV Sales 200 from New Hampshire

In all fairness and honesty this appears to be one of those racing deals. Brian Vickers got into the corner a little hot and underneath the #1 of Mike Bliss and got run into by his Cup series teammate Scott Speed.

The real concern here is the confrontation in race cars between the two on the cool down lap, and the collision of two race cars so close to pit row. That is dangerous and really both of these drivers should know better.

Lee Montgomery of Scenedauly.com wrote a piece where she points out that the real winner in this is the fans. Both of these drivers have a passion for racing and even driving part time rides in the Nationwide Series they were battling for fifth position. They both wanted a good finish and were upset when that good finish was taken away from them in the final turn of the race.

Montgomery is using this incident as a portrait of the passion the runs through each and every NASCAR driver, and for the most part she is right. NASCA drivers are among the most passionate athletes out there and for the most part they can say whatever they want on camera or off.

Think about it when an NFL player shows a little passion he is slapped with a fine, of the league makes rules curtailing end zone dances and celebrations, not in NASCAR. In NASCAR guys get together and they settle it amongst themselves, as they see fit. Showing some displeasure with another driver on the cool down lap is perfectly acceptable as long as the drivers are not putting other in harm’s way. This incident took that to the very edge, but did not cross it.

Now we can all probably guess that the folks over at Red Bull Racing were not all that happy about this, but in the end no one threw a punch, or a fake punch as was the case with Roush Fenway Racing Teammates Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards at Martinsville not all that long ago.

It seems that this flare up was relatively minor and the two Red Bull drivers should be able to put it behind them, as long as there is not another incident of this nature between them.