Busch says he's not wary of Harvick

Harvick warned last Sunday at Pocono that Busch "had one coming" as the pair raced side-by-side in the first part of the race, before NASCAR officials asked them to keep their on-track rivalry under control.

Following a pitroad altercation after the conclusion of a race at Darlington both drivers were fined US $25,000 and placed on a four-week probation periods that they have now completed. Two weeks ago Harvick's boss Richard Childress had a physical altercation with Busch after a Truck Series race at Kansas, for which the team owner was fined US $150,000.

Speaking at Michigan Harvick said the probation simply put a limit to what he could do, although it did not affect the way he raced. A three-time winner this year, Harvick expects to continue to race hard while trying to position himself as well as he can for the championship play-off.

"Obviously the probation ties your hands a little bit on certain things, but you have to go out and you still go out and you race as hard as you can and do the things that you need to do," Harvick said. "And I'm going to just keep doing most of the same things that we've been doing and just keep racing hard."

When asked about his warning to Busch from last week, Harvick said: "A lot of these things, you go out on the racetrack and things happen and you do what you think is right at the right time."

His Joe Gibbs Racing rival said that despite last week's warning, he is not expecting to take his feud with Harvick any further - while stating he tried to avoid it escalating last week during the early laps at Pocono. However he did not completely rule out the possibility of further incidents between them in the future.

"I'm not expecting anything at any time, but that doesn't mean that it won't happen," said Busch. "It's fine with me. It's not my problem. I race my racecar and he drives his. You saw how I raced [at Pocono]."

"When you're getting pushed down the front straightaway all the way to the bottom of the racetrack, you're trying to get away from the situation. It wasn't happening. He [Harvick] kept following me so I backed off and waited for my next opportunity to pass him and then when I did pass him, he then pushed me all the way down the frontstretch.

"At first, it brought back a memory of what he said after Homestead and how he was racing me like a clown all day and then he parked me. So, it seems like there was a different side there."

Harvick is currently fourth in the Cup standings, 20 points ahead of Busch.