NASCAR's Dirty Dozen Video Highlights

Squeaky clean, technically correct racing has long been the ideal of road racers around the world, who frown on race car contact and driver disputes.

NASCAR has never been able to handle such pretentiousness.

There's just been too many Earnhardts, Wallaces, Waltrips and the like for an American racing series like NASCAR -- born from hardscrabble roots -- to develop a pattern of incident-free, drama-free competition.

Sure, times have changed during the official 61-year history of NASCAR-sanctioned races. Fans could certainly argue that more vanilla has been added to the mix thanks to corporate interest and sponsorship, sometimes deadening the type of controversy that can make lap 62 of a 500-lap race an edge-of-your-seat experience.

But one thing is clear: NASCAR is still chock full of drivers and characters -- often one in the same -- who may push the envelope on what series officials and team owners really want to see on the track.

Here's a look at some of NASCAR's "Dirty Dozen" in action over the past few seasons:



You've got to figure that the reason Ryan Newman became angrier and angrier the longer he continued his post-race discussion with Joey Logano at Michigan on Aug. 15 was because Logano was telling him what he told the media: Newman races too hard! Newman, after all, was the driver who got spun out in the incident.

But, hey, Logano is still learning. And as far as being glib, Joey has a top contender for "line of the year" with his heat-of-the-moment statement about Kevin Harvick's wife -- "She wears the firesuit in the family" -- after their run-in at Pocono in June.

This one could almost be classified as a racing incident, if only because both drivers were fairly diplomatic about it afterward. Going into turn one, Said pushed wide and Stewart went wider and then got into the back of him as he battled back onto the track.


It's harder to join the Carl Edwards Fan Club after seeing this one from the Nationwide race at Gateway International Raceway on July 17. Keselowski dominated the race until Edwards got past him late in the race. After a slight bump, Keselowski battled back in front.

They raced clean and hard through turns three and four, but then when Edwards saw he wasn't going to catch Keselowski, he wrecked him.



Edwards vs. Keselowski, Round 1

The crash here was unbelievable. The cause was not.

In what is the root cause of most drama in NASCAR, Carl Edwards had been wrecked earlier in the race after contact with Brad Keselowski. The Roush Fenway driver steamed, didn't let it go and with just a few laps remaining -- and Keselowski looking to earn what would have been his best finish of the year -- Edwards got retribution.



Juan Pablo Montoya vs. Tony Stewart, Homestead


You could nominate this incident as part of the reason NASCAR made an about-face during the offseason to encourage more on-track action and aggressiveness. Having felt wronged by Montoya after a hard bump in the rear, Tony Stewart decided to make amends in a simple fashion: rub Montoya hard enough that a tire would be cut. With Stewart's goal accomplished, Montoya lost control and pancaked the turn three wall. Have at it, boys.


Carl Edwards flies into the Talladega catchfence

Little did we know at the time, but this was the incident between Edwards and Keselowski that led to what has been the single biggest and most-recurring on-track feud in NASCAR as of late. Keselowski, an unknown at the time driving for a small-time team, stalked Edwards to the checkered flag at Talladega and when the door opened to make the pass, he jumped.

Edwards blocked, spinning the No. 99 wildly into the catch fence in one of the scariest crashes -- mostly for the fans in the stands -- NASCAR has ever seen.


Of course, using the bumper is nothing new for NASCAR. Here's a few that may fall in to the 'Have at it, boys' Hall of Fame:

Dale Earnhardt vs. Terry Labonte, Bristol 1999

Who knew that Dale Earnhardt was one to be booed by the masses at Bristol? Well, 1999 was a different time in this sport, and when "Texas" Terry Labonte put together one of the greatest late-race drives through the field in the waning laps while Earnhardt led, the No. 3 knew he had to do something. Thus, "rattle his cage" joined the NASCAR vocabulary.




Rusty Wallace vs. Jeff Gordon, Richmond 1998

Jeff Gordon earned some notoriety after his bump-happy performance at Infineon Raceway earlier this season, but the four-time champion hasn't gone without being turned himself. In this case, Rusty Wallace already held a grudge on Gordon and when the No. 24 looked like he'd pull away for the win, Wallace stopped Gordon in his tracks with a slight turn to the right.