Every once in a while a race comes along that infuses a little juice into the NASCAR Sprint Cup season. The Richmond event last weekend was one of those.

There was the heartbreak of hometown hero Denny Hamlin losing a tire after leading 380 laps. There was the old master, Mark Martin, in contention until the end. Then there was the biggest story of them all: Young, pretentious Kyle Busch having the nerve to race Dale Earnhardt Jr. hard in the closing laps.

Reading comments from fans and several editorials throughout the week proved more than a little interesting. Whether you’re part of Junior Nation or one of the few who actually claim to be Kyle Busch fans, the truth to the incident was extremely simple.

We had two hungry drivers who, before Hamlin’s misfortune, were running for second and suddenly found themselves dueling for a win. We had one driver, Junior, who preferred the high line. We had another, Busch, who wanted to stay closer to the bottom. Yet when the much-talked-about accident occurred, neither was where he preferred to be.

They were in the middle of the track heading into a turn. Now, you can say Busch slid up into Junior, then tried to muscle him up the track. Or you can say Junior came down the track to the point where Busch had no choice but to get into him.

Or you can say what the drivers themselves said when emotions calmed down. It was a racing incident. Period. Two drivers going hard for a win and trying to get to the same point on the track at the same time. Unless one is willing to back off — and there was no backing off at that point — sheet metal is going to get bent.

A quick aside here. One good point that several writers have brought up this past week is how ironic it was that Junior fans were so angry at Busch when the driver he’s most compared to these days is the Intimidator, Dale Earnhardt Sr. Maybe if Junior took all his in-car anger out on other drivers instead of crew chief Tony Eury Jr., things would be different.

OK, back to last Saturday. The real controversy came courtesy of the Fox announcers, who said Busch had turned his wheel up into Junior’s car, hinting that Busch was trying to wreck him once they got together. For someone with the experience and supposed expertise as Darrell Waltrip even to bring that up is interesting. DW has since retracted his statement, but the damage was done.

Busch was simply trying to save his car. Good drivers instinctively turn to the right when they get out of control (you know the old rule — always turn into a slide). In doing exactly that, Busch probably saved both cars from the junk pile. If he had spun, there’s no way they could have stayed off the wall.

It doesn’t help Busch’s cause that he’s not the most likable driver on the circuit. He’s brash, he’s smug and he really doesn’t care what people think about him. In many ways, he’s the anti-Junior, which makes them, maybe, natural rivals.

That Busch ended up second and in the points lead after the race only added to the Junior Nation rage. Meanwhile, Earnhardt’s two-year losing streak continued. Fan reaction, though mostly one-sided, has been very emotional — and that’s just what NASCAR needs.

Fans have complained about races being boring this year as teams try to figure out the COT. Richmond was anything but boring, and it may have given us a glimpse of things to come. What this sport lacks right now is a good, old-fashioned, hate-infused rivalry. Even if the drivers don’t publicly dislike each other, an on-track feud between top drivers fuels fan interest.

Thanks, Richmond. We needed a wakeup call.

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