Through the years, there have always been rivalries in NASCAR, several of them have been memorable.

Richard Petty and Bobby Allison hated each other on the track more than NHL fans hate Chris Simon.

Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip were filed in the dictionary under "NASCAR rivalry" in the mid '80s.  1986 was the climax when they finished 1-2 in the points in a season that started off in race #2 at Richmond where they wrecked each other out while leading the field with less than 5 laps to go.

Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace had the epic battle in 1993, back in the days when Earnhardt gave Rusty the nickname "rubberneck" because he always wanted to see what was going on.  They also finished 1-2 in the standings that year.

Then there was the respectful rivalry of 1998 where Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin had an all out war with each other, but a clean one, when they too finished 1-2 in the standings, and combined to win 20 of the 33 races!

Who can forget Kevin Harvick and Greg Biffle?  That battle will never end.  Check the current standings and speak of the devil, they're right behind each other!

Last year it was HMS teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson racing for the title, and oh what a race it was, but since they were teammates it never got ugly

Now it's Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, and surprise surprise, they're currently the top 2 in points...oh and they drive for different teams, so sparks are guaranteed to fly, and that's just what's happening.

The last time 2 drivers from different teams dominated the season like this was Martin & Gordon 10 years ago.  Could we be watching history repeat itself?  There's a lot of similarities...

• Martin raced for Roush, Gordon for Hendrick...Edwards is a Roushketeer, Busch a year removed from HMS.
• Martin and Gordon by this point in the season had combined to win 13 of the 22 races...Edwards and Busch have combined for 14 of the 24 victory lane celebrations so far this year.
• Martin and Gordon were separated by 67 points at this point of the season and were 156 points ahead of 3rd place...Edwards and Busch are separated by 212, but are still over 200 points ahead of the rest of the competition.

However, the drivers are different, the cars are different, and the points are different, and we're about to go back to square 1 in a couple weeks.  That said, this is still an epic battle nonetheless, one that will continue all the way to the checkered flag in Homestead.

By now you've all seen the latest incident.  For those of you living under a rock, here's the (not so) short version.  Edwards pulled the bump-and-run on Busch with 30 laps to go at Bristol.  Busch bumped him back unsuccessfully, and couldn't get back by Edwards.  On the cool down lap, Edwards was waving to the crowd when the 18 started smacking him in the driver's side door.  Edwards retaliated by spinning Shrub, generating a huge cheer from the crowd.  Shrub said "if that's the way he wants to race, so be it."  Edwards said in victory lane "I thought 'would he do that to me,' and he has."

Now, BOTH drivers have been placed on probation for the next 6 races, starting this week in California.  That means NASCAR will be watching Shrub and Carl like a hawk.  Any retaliatory move made by either driver will mean big trouble.  I understand NASCAR's position, which states both drivers violated a rule that says you're not allowed to hit another competitor's car after the race has ended.  That said, this postrace debacle wouldn't have happened if Kyle Busch would've acted like an adult.  Instead he threw a temper tantrum and showed the NASCAR world he still needs diapers.

Kyle Busch is a hypocrite, as is NASCAR.  Shrub can dish it out, but can't take it.  NASCAR claims they want to see the drivers show their emotions, yet they still penalize drivers when they do just that.  Busch's extra hits weren't necessary, but NASCAR wants drama from the drivers.  They said before the start of the season "we want to see drivers showcase their emotions more."  Umm, excuse me, Mr. Helton...if that postrace altercation wasn't showcasing emotions, what was it, besides immaturity on Kyle Busch's part?

If Shrub had some brains, he would've waited till they were both out of their cars.  That would've been the sensible thing to do.  Instead he decided to body slam the 99, and when Edwards gave him some payback, he unfortunately got penalized too.  Maybe when they said "show more emotion," they wanted to see something along the lines of Kevin Harvick throwing a tantrum on Ricky Rudd's roof in Richmond when Rudd said "he's got that little yap-yap mouth."

Take it from me, you haven't heard the last of this feud this year, not by a long shot.  NASCAR fans, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards are the newest Sprint Cup Series rivalry.  I will guarantee you this (not) family feud will continue until a champion is crowned for 2008.  Just watch to see if either of these drivers makes an attempt to test NASCAR's probation ruling this weekend, because they'll be sorry if they do. 

For those of you who were with us last year for ESPN's much more publicized and overblown 25 hours of college football, we had a pretty good time. Mostly it turned into a bunch of sleep deprived smart-asses sabatoging ESPN's up-all-night live chat with questions such as these:

David Duffey: (3:46 AM ET ) Colin will be contributing an audio piece for us this fall. Look for the first edition of Herd Mentality tomorrow. It will run every Monday during the season.

Bill (Los Angeles): Will Colin be contributing an original piece, or will it mostly be taken from blogs and other sources he read?

David Duffey: (3:51 AM ET ) It will be a weekly original take

And my lame questioning...
 

Rece's Bed (Bristol, CT): Yo, where are you?

Rece Davis: (1:53 AM ET ) not close...for quite some time.

So yeah, let's enjoy some ESPN chat shenanigans and allow Lou Holtz and Mark May to "enlighten" us, as only they can. Maybe Lou can give US a pep talk.

I'm sure pretty much everyone who has ever played sports has gotten stuck with at least one coach who was a complete jackass. A coach that just rode the whole team into the ground because he was on some kind of power trip.

It gets to the point where, as a player, you don't even care about how well or how poorly you play. All you want to do is kick the coach where the sun don't shine when he lets his guard down for half-a-second.

Now, as someone who played sports at a variety of levels, including college, I have what you'd call a sixth-sense for spotting jackass coaches. Like this video here of Tony Sparano, head coach of the Miami Dolphins. It took me approximately 5 seconds to determine that not only is he an absolute power hungry, insufferable idiot, but also that the Dolphins won't win 3 games this year.

Why? Because they suck AND they already hate their coach. Nothing like telling your #1 draft pick - who'll be protecting the punching bag you put at quarterback - that all he learned at Michigan was the fight song. Can't wait to play for you now, coach!

I'm not sure what the hell Sparano spent last year doing, but it obviously wasn't watching Tom Coughlin become a player's coach and win a Super Bowl in the process.

So, after this video, how long do I give Sparano at the helm of the Dolphins? Less than a year. Only to be replaced by an even bigger jackass - Bill Parcells.

Enjoy the season, Dolphins.

Tony Sparano doesn't seem like a players coach [Shutdown Corner]

Today's blog goodness

1. What are the top conferences in college football this year?
2. Predicting the 2012 Team USA Basketball squad.
3. Jay Mariotti moves on. Chicago rejoices.
4. The Mets are starting to collapse again. Right on schedule.
5. Kobe Bryant rules China.

Today's other FanIQ site goodness

1. Better get your college football picks in for Week 1 of the Plasma Screen TV Contest.
2. Since the SEC is supposedly the best conference in America, might as well make some predictions on it.
3. Usain Bolt is a dance machine.

Tonight's TV goodness

We have some early round U.S. Open action and a chance to see how A-Rod follows up his astounding awful 0-5 with two double plays game from last night. My guess is he goes 0-11 with eleventy hundred strikeouts.

Major League Baseball: Boston at New York Yankees (ESPN, 7 p.m.)
Tennis: U.S. Open, men's first round and women's second round, at New York (USA, 7 p.m.)

In my Greatest College Football Quotes post earlier this week, included was this classic from Knute Rockne:


Florida Gators running back Chris Rainey qualifies. Rainey may be a lot of things, namely ridiculously fast, but he's not smart.

Rainey is a redshirt freshman, who has yet to see the field, but when it comes to quotes, he's a bloggers dream. Let's see, he's already been accused of accepting illegal gifts in high school, refers to himself in the third person and most notably, made is public that he prefers white girls.

Via The Sporting Blog, the All-American career in quotes continues. You see, Rainey signed up for a sex class, but it's not exactly what he had in mind.

Rainey: I'm taking sex classes.

Reporter: Six classes?

Rainey: Sex classes.

Laughter erupted from the twenty-some reporters crowding around him.

He's not the only one who enjoys taking the sex class at UF.

"It's a lot of people," Rainey said. "It was all the way to the door when I got in. My back was touching the door."

And even with all those students in the room, the subject matter was not at all to Rainey's liking.

"It's boring," Rainey said. "I thought it would be fun, like you see on TV. But it ain't like that."

We eagerly await the debut of Chris Rainey on the field Saturday, we doubt any Hawaii Warriors will catch him, but we can't wait for the first reporter to catch him after the game. Whenever he speaks, I shall listen... dumbfounded.
 

Florida's Chris Rainey Was Under the Assumption That This Was a Film Class [The Sporting Blog]