by Ryan McGee

It is a stock car practice that has existed since Glenn Dunaway took NASCAR to court to appeal his disqualification from the very first "Strictly Stock" event in 1949. And the earliest post-race fisticuffs were fought by World War II veterans.

Before you start getting all hot and bothered and take a swing at me, here are the top five NASCAR grudge matches of all time:

5. Bruton Smith vs. NASCAR

In 1960, car salesman Smith and driving superstar Curtis Turner were plunged into bankruptcy during construction of the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa agreed to bail the two out financially, but only if Turner organized a NASCAR drivers union. Bill France Sr. swept in, crushing the union, banning Turner for life, defeating Hoffa in court and alienating Smith forever. These days, France's sanctioning body and Smith's Speedway Motorsports Incorporated circle each other buzzard-style in a tense yet dependent coexistence.

4. Darrell Waltrip vs. Cale Yarborough

When DW exploded onto the NASCAR scene in 1973, he was young, brash and braggadocious. None of sport's big four stars -- Richard Petty, David Pearson, Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough -- much cared for him, but only one went out of his way to voice such an opinion early and often... Yarborough. "He was always running his mouth, and he was always eating up race cars," says the three-time champ. "So I nicknamed him 'Jaws' because he was always flapping his jaws. I respected him as a driver, but I wasn't going to let him run over me, too."

"I understood the value of publicity," says DW, who eventually took over Yarborough's title-winning ride with Junior Johnson and won three Winston Cups himself. "I was just joking around most of the time, poking at guys and having a little good-natured fun. But everybody started taking it too seriously, and it turned ugly."

High Noon Moment: With 100 laps to go in the 1977 Southern 500 at Darlington, race leaders Waltrip and Yarborough went into turn three five-wide with lap traffic while battling for the lead. Both wrecked hard and ended any shot at the win.

3. Cale Yarborough vs. The Alabama Gang

In all fairness, we could list The Allisons versus a lot of different people, typically those who came from regions north of the Mason-Dixon Line to go racing. But of the great 1970's era of Allison vs. Petty vs. Pearson vs. Yarborough, no grudge was more flammable than that of the Allisons and Yarborough, as non-northern a man as there has ever been.

High Noon Moment: Bobby, Donnie and Cale all wrecked in the early going of the 1979 Daytona 500, but Donnie and Cale rallied to run 1-2 in the closing laps of NASCAR's first flag-to-flag live televised 500. After they wrecked each other in turn three of the final lap, Bobby pulled over in the infield to check on his little brother. Words were exchanged between Bobby and Cale before all hell broke loose live on CBS with Ken Squier doing play-by-play. "And... It's a fight! It's a fight!" It's still the most famous brawl in NASCAR history.

2. Smokey Yunick vs. NASCAR Inspectors

Yunick's mechanical mastery left NASCAR's technical inspectors flustered and frustrated for the better part of two decades, winning with drivers such as Herb Thomas, Fireball Roberts, Marvin Panch, Banjo Matthews and Bobby Isaac. He won races in cars that were widely accepted as illegal, but were never formally proven so by NASCAR.

High Noon Moment: After a Daytona race in the early 1960's, NASCAR picked Yunick's car apart, eventually draining the fuel tank completely dry in an effort to force the need to tow it back to his garage. Without saying a word, Yunick climbed behind the wheel, cranked it up and drove away. He later admitted "I could have driven it all the way to Jacksonville and back."

1. Dale Earnhardt vs. Rusty Wallace

During the 1970's and 80's, Earnhardt ruffled the feathers of everyone from Richard Petty to Bill Elliott. But none of those rivalries could hold a candle to his duels with Wallace from 1988 through the mid-1990's. In 1989, Wallace edged Earnhardt by 12 points to win the Winston Cup title. Four years later, The Intimidator returned the favor by 80 points. In between, a sea of black T-shirts divided the grandstand into a camp full of 2's and a camp full of 3's.

High Noon Moment: August 26, 1995, Goody's 500 at Bristol. Earnhardt spun Wallace in the early going and was confronted by Wallace in the infield after the race. With crewmen and NASCAR officials pulling them apart, Wallace shouted "I won't forget this just like I haven't forgotten Talladega!" (Harking back to a last-lap incident two years earlier.) Wallace then bounced a bottle of water off of The Intimidator's nose.

Honorable Mentions: Kevin Harvick vs. Greg Biffle, Geoff Bodine vs. Brett Bodine, Lee Petty vs. the Kiekhaefer Chryslers, Junior Johnson vs. The United States Government, Tony Stewart vs. Jeff Gordon, Tiny Lund vs. Elizabeth Petty (Lee's wife & Richard's mom)

---

Ryan McGee is the managing editor at NASCAR Images and Senior Producer of NASCAR Nation on SPEED Channel. He can be reached at his e-mail address: rmcgee@foxsports.com.