Hamilton rails at Harvick

Harvick's car is run by the late Earnhardt's Richard Childress Racing crew, but his driving at Martinsville enraged Hamilton. Hamilton had already knocked Harvick out of the lead, which irritated 25-year-old Harvick to the point where he spun him out in the fourth turn. Hamilton lost a lap in the incident and Harvick was penalised one lap by NASCAR officials for what was considered rough driving.

"He's just trying to be Earnhardt," claimed Hamilton. "And Earnhardt knew how to do it, he don't. Somebody will black them eyes for him before he does because Earnhardt had earned a lot of respect for everybody. I hope he [Harvick] don't think that because he can't do it. He's not good enough to do it. You just don't go hiring other Dale Earnhardts. I think he needs to do what he's capable of doing and that's it. He'll still be fine, but he'll never be what Earnhardt was.

"The kid has got a ton of talent and he's going to do a lot for NASCAR. We're all mad right now and we'll have to race against each other later on. But I'm madder than hell right now. If he came over here and said something, me and him would have a fight right about now."

Harvick defended his actions in the race: "Bobby Hamilton got into us a little bit and we just kind of returned the favour. I guess that's not what they [NASCAR] wanted to see. So, you know, we'll just live and breathe with their calls and those kinds of calls aren't what's going to fill the grandstands. They didn't feel it was right, but I didn't feel that it was right that Bobby Hamilton knocked us out of the lead. It's an eye for an eye, and that's the way we race."