It's not something new. Its just that ever improving television coverage has brought this nuance into our living rooms with clarity and from my point of view, a degree of enjoyment.

	Bump-and-runs can make racing more exciting, but it also makes it more treacherous as Bill Elliott found out at Bristol earlier this year.

Stock car racing is just as violent as football. The consequences of an over the top hit are far greater, but both live with bump and runs and sacks. Because of speed issues, there are some that think super-speedways are no place for contact. That's just not possible.

You cannot pilot a 4,000-pound stock car inches away from another without running into each other occasionally. That fact has created the bump as a tool for use by frustrated drivers.

With the parity exhibited in NASCAR, passing is a difficult premise. A driver can take away just enough of the fast lane from a superior car to keep the faster one at bay.

Five-hundred miles allows drivers who encounter misfortune early, to recover from being a lap down and enjoy a solid finish. But in order to stay in a position to regain a lost lap, drivers must make it as difficult as possible for a leader to lap him.

When Rusty Wallace and Ricky Rudd tangled with about 50 miles left in Sunday's MBNA Cal Ripken 400 you just knew that Rusty's bump that sent Rudd spinning was a payback for the way Rudd roughed him up while putting the St. Louis driver a lap down.

When a race dwindles down to just a handful of laps, all professional courtesy goes out the window. Just ask Richard Petty and David Pearson about their last lap tussle at Daytona's 500 more than 20 years ago.

Sometimes that passion can erupt into hot tempers. Remember 1979 at Daytona? That's when Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough gave up any shot at winning to take their dispute "outside" by crashing over and over again into each other as they slammed into turn 3 on the last lap. Then, they continued their dispute on the track apron with their fists.

Earlier this season at Bristol, Tony Stewart stuffed Jeff Gordon on pit road after they tangled late in the race.

In the early '80's the coveted "payback" took on humorous proportions after Cale Yarbrough and Darrell Waltrip tangled late in a race at Michigan. After D.W. recovered from spinning, he set off, full tilt into turn one in hot pursuit of Yarborough. The race was over, but observers would have thought Waltrip was on a qualifying run the way he was covering real estate.

Then, just as he had Yarbrough in his sights for a WWF style body slam, Yarborough accelerated out of the way leaving Waltrip spinning yet again.

We like our road rage in NASCAR. Some say that's why NASCAR has fenders on their cars. Others say that it's an important reason for NASCAR's ever increasing popularity. The bump and run is part of NASCAR. Always has been and hopefully always will be.