NASCAR Sprint Cup: Ranking the Top 7 Current Rivalries On and Off the Track

"Boys, have at it" is the four-word difference between the NASCAR of today and the NASCAR of a few years ago. Drivers are permitted to settle their differences on the track... although that's not always where they choose to do so. More often than not, they take those differences to the media, throwing other drivers under the bus and choosing to blame their own actions on one another.

This is a common thread in racing and always has been, but when NASCAR loosened its restrictions on drivers' tempers just a couple of years ago, things got interesting. So we present, without further ado, the top seven rivalries in recent NASCAR memory:

7. Boris Said and Greg Biffle

It's a shame that this one died down so soon. After Watkins Glen, Biffle accused Said of having wrecked his teammate, David Ragan, which then sent David Reutimann's car flipping. Biffle insinuated that, because Said isn't a full-time driver, he races like a moron and tried to fight him in the garage. Said's response was to call Biffle "the most unprofessional little scaredy-cat" and threaten to give him a black eye before a race. Said now says the drivers have settled their differences.

6. Robby Gordon and NASCAR

Now the last of the independents, it seems like every year Robby Gordon has some sort of issue with the powers that be in NASCAR. Whether it's the 2008 penalties levied against him for having an unapproved nose cover—something that was not his fault, but the fault of his Dodge suppliers—or his Speed Energy merchandise trailer not being allowed into certain tracks, it's as if the sport just doesn't want him there. Not that he cares, of course—he'll just keep on running.

5. Ryan Newman and Juan Pablo Montoya

This is another rivalry that had a lot of potential, but was quickly quelled.

At Richmond in May, Montoya had won the pole and was performing well, but the two got into one another early in the race. The resulting damage ruined any shot Montoya had to win.

Later in the race, Montoya came back and spun Newman, who had maintained a top-10 position up to that point. After a physical altercation in the NASCAR hauler, both drivers were warned to cut it out; not much has transpired between them since.

4. Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski

An oldie (relatively speaking) but a goodie: This rivalry erupted when Keselowski wrecked Edwards to win his first career Sprint Cup race at Talladega in 2009. The resulting wreck sent Edwards into Talladega's catch fence, a la Bobby Allison in 1987, and many thought it would directly affect Edwards' ability to win races.

When "boys, have at it" was introduced in 2010, Edwards extracted his revenge twice—at Atlanta in Sprint Cup, where he sent Keselowski flipping, and at Gateway in Nationwide, when he wrecked Keselowski out of the final turn to win a race. These drivers don't tangle much head-on anymore, but as the only two Sprint Cup drivers to run full-time Nationwide schedules as well, they still see a lot of one another.

3. Carl Edwards and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

What makes this one interesting is the fact that these are Nationwide teammates at Roush Fenway Racing.

Edwards apparently is not a fan of Stenhouse's aggressive driving style and has said that he will "stand his ground," even against teammates. Stenhouse claimed that, at Iowa, Edwards flipped him off down the backstretch at one point, but harbors no bitterness after the finish pictured here. When Stenhouse blew a motor coming out of the final turn of the Iowa event, Edwards slammed right into the back of him and pushed him across the finish line to keep the victory.

2. Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch

It can't be a NASCAR rivalry list without at least one Busch brother on it, can it? Here are two guys who also see a lot of one another—both are Camping World Truck Series owners, both run a significant amount of Nationwide races and both are Sprint Cup front-runners.

Their feud at Darlington also may have swept Ryan Newman and Juan Pablo Montoya's under the rug. Harvick felt that Busch had wrecked him at the very end of the Southern 500 and parked his car in front of Busch's on pit road after the race. When he exited his car to confront Busch, Busch simply nudged the No. 29 out of the way, sending the driverless car into the inside pit wall.

1. Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch

The hottest feud in NASCAR right now features the inaugural Chase champion (Busch) and the guy who has won the last five (Johnson). They've had issues with one another for years now, but things escalated once more at Pocono. Busch finished third after rubbing against Johnson in the late stages of the race and taking the position. Johnson took offense to what he perceived as "dirty driving," and accused Busch of running his mouth in the aftermath. Their pit road discussion ended with both drivers testily admitting that they hate to lose, hinting that this feud may get even better come Chase time.