Year of Team Rivalries: Kasey Kahne and A.J. Allmendinger

Jimmie and Jeff. Denny and Kyle. AJ and Kasey?

This year has turned into the feud of the teammates with many of the above mentioned making angry comments after races to stir up the media and even car owners. But while the HMS and JGR feuds were highly publicized, the new RPM feud has been pushed to the back of people’s minds after the Logano and Harvick fight.

If you missed it, on the last lap of the Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500 at Pocono on Sunday, A.J. Allmendinger put a block on teammate Kasey Kane, causing Kasey to go into the grass then back across the track for a wreck that took out at least ten cars.

After Kahne was released from the care center, he didn’t hold back during his interview (seems that Pocono had that affect on people this weekend).

"I don’t talk to AJ hardly ever and I doubt I am going to talk to him about this." Kahne said, possibly causing even more tension at the already hostile Richard Petty Motorsports.

It’s clear that Kasey hasn’t been happy with RPM and it seems as though he’s not worried about burning some bridges before he leaves at the end of the year.  For the record, Allmendinger did apologize for the wreck in his post race interview.

I doubt this will turn into a big rivalry like we’ve been hoping to see with the HMS and JGR teams, but it seems like this "team sport" is becoming more of an "every man for himself" situation, and the team banners are just names.

Although, with both Sadler and Kahne showing no love for Allmendinger, you have to wonder how long it will take before all three teams totally fall apart under the pressure.

Fans asked for more drama and emotion from NASCAR and we haven’t been disappointed. But no one expected the drama to come from feuds between teammates with very few coming from teams in separate shops.

There is still half a season left for the tension to build in other race shops as we get closer to the Chase. Will we see more team rivalries or will drivers decide to keep the fights against guys they don’t have to work with day in and day out?