Kyle Busch pitches a fit after losing Saturday's race to Brad Keselowski and Brian Vickers

  Brad Keselowski beats Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch to the line to win Saturday's Michigan 250 (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   BROOKLYN, Mich.
   Now if only Sunday's Michigan 400 will be as excited as Saturday's Nationwide three-man fight to the finish, Brad Keselowski winning with a great outside move past surprised Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch on the final lap at Michigan International Speedway.
   Vickers was leading down the stretch and trying to hold off Busch, and then Vickers got loose but made a great save. That gave the edge, briefly, to Busch, who lost the lead moments later….and then Vickers and Busch – so engrossed in their own duel – missed Keselowki making a brilliant run to the outside for the lead and the win.
   After the race, Busch was clearly displeased with Vickers, though video replays didn't show any particular reason for Busch's anger. The two pulled off the track onto pit road and Busch clipped Vickers' nose lightly.
   Such pit road antics typically draw NASCAR's wrath. But then NASCAR surprised many in the sport by not penalizing Robby Gordon for hard driving against Joey Logano last week at Watkins Glen. So it is unclear if NASCAR might issue any penalties here.
   Vickers, on the pole for Sunday's 400, with Busch right behind him, could well do battle again.
   Vickers, who is typically cool even under pressure, much like Jimmie Johnson, dismissed Busch's anger:
   "I'm frustrated because we should have had a win," Vickers said. "I didn't see Brad coming. 
   "Kyle was crying like a little girl after the race, and he came up and was whining because I was racing him so hard. 
    "I thought this was racing, I thought this was what we were supposed to do. 
   "We were racing for the win, and he's crying about it. 
    "I don't know what he wants."

    Busch's viewpoint? "Brian hung on my right-rear quarter panel all the way down the front straightaway and gave the win away.
    "He slowed us down so much. He had no idea Brad was coming, and Brad just drove right by both of us on the outside.
    "It was just stupid. 
     "If he (Vickers) would have ran his own line up at the top of the track, and I held my line down at the bottom, it could have been a battle between us.
    "Unfortunately you race with idiots and I guess you'll have that sometimes.
    "I'm sure I'm complaining, and I'm whining, and I'm a cry-baby…but that's uncalled for.
     "It's just stupid.
     "He didn't deserve to win."
     "He (Vickers) bobbled in three; I got under him coming off of four, and got all the way down to the grass trying to get away from him, and he just hung on my right-rear quarter-panel side-drafting me and wasn’t paying attention to the mirror.
    "Ever since Richmond (in May), I've had a problem with him (Vickers). This is just another escalation of that."

   Vickers was not apologetic: "I am so sorry, I forgot it was the Kyle Busch Show.
    "I thought we were racing for a win.
    "Kyle was better (down the stretch); I thought it was my job to hold him off. Apparently not. 
    "He came over to the car after we came in (to pit road) and knocked our fender in…which was unnecessary. And then he started crying like a little baby. 
     "I asked if he would just give me a minute to get out and we could talk about it like men. 
     "If he wanted to fight, that's fine with me. 
     "As soon as I got out, he ran off.
      "I don't know why he was so upset after the race. I thought it was good, hard racing. 
     "I didn't realize it was my job to let him win the race. 
     "I didn't hit him; I didn't move him. I didn't do anything dirty.
      "The Richmond incident he was talking about was he got to me and in the first turn he got to me: he raced me up the track, and I moved him back up the track the next turn.
    "After that, we've been fine. 
    "I don't know what else to do. I race people the way they race me.  We were racing for the win.
     "Kyle: if you're going to be upset about that, I mean I'm sorry.  That's my job -- to try to win the race."