Jimmy Spencer punching Kurt Busch in Michigan: $25,000. Kevin Harvick's post-race tirade in Richmond: $35,000. The national publicity generated by both incidents: priceless.

For the second time in the last four races venom has outplayed victory.

Temper tantrums by Spencer and Harvick have kept NASCAR in the headlines. In the process, their actions have overshadowed what should be the lead story, Ryan Newman scoring his fifth and sixth wins -- a series high. If anyone has reason to be mad it's him.

There were 14 cautions Saturday night but the one that has created a buzz is the last one. With six laps to go, Ricky Rudd hit Harvick from behind sending him spinning as the two raced for second position.

Harvick felt it was a "!@# $%&*(@! cheap shot."

But Rudd says it wasn't intentional.

"I looked at my mirror then I looked back up and Kevin was stopped. Not completely stopped but stopped in a place on the straightaway where you don't normally stop," explained Rudd. "I got in the back of him. It was unfortunate. It wasn't on purpose. And I wouldn't hit anybody going into the corner at Richmond. It's not the place to take a cheap shot at somebody. You wouldn't do it there because you can get hurt there."

Harvick wasn't injured, but he was incensed. The driver known as 'Happy' was anything but. Wearing his emotions on his fenders, Harvick charged down pit road during post race ceremonies, sideswiped Rudd's car, made profane remarks and threw his HANS device.

Meanwhile, as some team members restrained Harvick, others decided to batter and thrash Rudd's car.

"I saw a bunch of RCR guys jumping up and down on the hood of our race car, jumping up and down I hear them crunching the roof in and basically destroyed our car on pit road," said Rudd. "One thing I'll say, (Harvick's car owner) Richard Childress runs a class act. I drove for Richard years ago, for two years, and I can tell you he didn't condone what went on tonight. He's a tremendous car owner and I'm sure he's not proud of what happened."

	Harvick wasn't happy about being wrecked on Saturday.

He's not.

"I called the Wood Brothers to apologize and told them that I would pay for the damage done to their race car by those crew members," Childress said in a statement released Monday. "While I understand the emotions of our pit crew, the action they took was uncalled for."

However, Childress stopped well short of condemning his driver or his team for being upset.

"NASCAR Winston Cup racing is a very emotional sport," said Childress. Sometimes, though, in the heat of battle, those emotions can get the best of you and things happen that you regret later.

"I want to say, however, I understand and support Kevin Harvick's feelings for wanting to have a few words with Ricky Rudd after the race."

Unanimously, drivers agree there is an emotional side of the sport but know there is also a line drawn between anger and overaggression.

"Discussions are OK," Dale Jarrett said. "Going and talking about things as long as we're not trying to promote fighting. But there's a lot of emotion out there. If you go and discuss something that happened, there's nothing wrong with doing that."

Jeff Gordon agrees.

"I just think there's a lot of guys putting a lot of themselves on the line and know how hard the team's worked and want to get the results. And when that doesn't happen it's hard to keep your composure," Gordon said. "But it's a professional sport, we have to. We have to find a way to do that and try not to go out there and look like an idiot."

NASCAR responded to the incident by taking disciplinary action In addition to Harvick's $35,000 fine, five RCR crew members also received penalties; including crew chief Todd Barrier who was fined $10,000 and crew members Mike Scearce and Gene Pasquale who were suspended.

Rudd's crew chief Pat Tryson was also fined $5,000 for using improper language.

The foundation for the penalties can be found in the Winston Cup rule book, section 12-4-A -- "Actions detrimental to stock car racing."

But were the actions really damaging? Was NASCAR's image tarnished? It's easy to wonder if this type of conduct might, in some warped way, actually be good for the sport.

"It probably sells tickets," added Mark Martin after the race.

Let's face it, he's right. One of the key components of drama is conflict and that's exactly what this is.

"It sure is entertaining," admits Gordon. "I'll tell you what, I don't want to be a part of it in any way, but man, it sure is entertaining."

Many people point to the fight between Cale Yarborough and the Allison brothers during the 1979 Daytona 500 as the catalyst to NASCAR's popularity growth. It was the first Daytona 500 broadcast live on network television and it had the makings of a sporting event and soap opera all wrapped into one. To this day there is not a race fan older than 30 who doesn't remember that.

Unfortunately, they probably did forget who won the race -- Richard Petty. That's got to make Newman feel a little bit better -- at least he's in good company.

Mike Massaro covers NASCAR for ESPN and ESPN.com.