Sunday afternoon the entire Junior Nation rose up and cheered as they finally got revenge on the man they all love to hate. Last time the series rolled into the Richmond International Raceway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. appeared to be on his way to his first victory of the year - that is until contact with Kyle Busch late in the race dashed those hopes. Sunday, Junior Nation got a bit of payback.

Racing hard for the lead on Lap 213, Busch did everything he could to hold off the hard-charging No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet. Heading into Turn 1, Junior got a heck of a run on the No. 18 M&Ms Toyota and took a look underneath. Throwing a block, Busch came down on Junior as the No. 88 locked up the right front tire. The two made contact and Busch slid hard into the outside wall, bringing out the eighth caution of the day.

The only thing bigger than the cloud of smoke coming from the No. 18's spin was the reaction the incident drew from the crowd. Fans were quick to jump to their feet and cheer their driver on for showing the kid they call "Rowdy" just what he gets when he messes with Junior Nation.

For the drivers though, it was just two guys racing hard for the lead.

"He's racing hard," Earnhardt Jr. said of Busch. "He was up front leading and I felt like I was a little quicker and was gaining on him a little bit on each corner and I was on the bottom real tight and that wasn't going to get by him. So I moved up to get next to him and race him hard and I got down into (Turn) 1 too hard and got into the quarter panel and spun him out. It was an accident that it happened but you know, and it was midway through the race."

Downplaying the idea that the contact was intentional, Earnhardt Jr. smiled and simply offered an answered his father would have been proud of.

"Well, I think if I wreck somebody, I ain't going to leave him in good enough shape to come back and get me in the same race, so that wasn't really my intentions. If I wanted to, I really ain't never wrecked anybody on purpose, I can go back and remember a couple of times but if I wanted to do it, I would do it really, really good.

"So I don't know, he might have; he was pretty far up the racetrack. I had plenty of room," Junior added. "This is the deal. He might have come down, you know, whatever, but it's really the guys on the inside's job to take care of the guy on the outside. It's not his job to move out of my way even if I'm on his left rear quarter panel."

With Earnhardt Jr. on his back bumper and the memory of earlier this year fresh in his mind, Busch knew with the No. 88 behind him anything could happen.

"Yeah, I knew he was back there," Busch said following the race. "I knew he was on my quarter panel, but you know, I tried to make sure that I was leaving enough room down there. So, if there was a chance for a mistake, that he had enough room to gather it back up, but unfortunately there wasn't enough room there and we got together."

"Was that revenge? Who knows."

Whether Earnhardt Jr. borrowed a page from his father's book or not, this feud appears to be over. Neither driver seemed to be terribly upset with the another, and both appeared to know the incident was a definite possibility. Those in the stands and watching at home where the real winners in this deal. Busch was forced to fix the damage and work his way back through the field after going a lap down, while Earnhardt Jr.'s day was never the same afterwards. Don't expect this flair up as the next big rivalry, instead look at it as just another one of those racing deals - but hey, I could be wrong.