Take anger and frustration. Mix in passion and emotion. Add the competitive drive seasoned by 43 lifetimes worth of singular focus. Stuff into a cauldron, turn up the heat, apply intense pressure and stir at 170 mph.

Those are the ingredients of NASCAR Winston Cup racing, and during the 2003 it has been a spicy recipe.

At Michigan in August, a long-simmering feud between Kurt Busch and Jimmy Spencer boiled over in a postrace incident in the garage that brought a one-race suspension for Spencer and resentment in the grandstands for Busch.

A month later at Richmond, Kevin Harvick showed his anger over a late-race bump from Ricky Rudd by pulling alongside Rudd on pit road after the checkered flag and starting a shouting match that nearly turned much uglier.

“There’s a reason people watch racing instead of golf,” Harvick said. “It’s an exciting sport, there’s a lot of emotion involved, and it means a lot to myself, all the race teams and all the people involved.

“You’re never going to get rid of all the emotions.”

Certainly not, but NASCAR cannot allow those emotions to erupt wildly at every turn.

“When you go through the garage area these days, you don’t see people smiling or laughing with one another,” said H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler, president of Lowe’s Motor Speedway. “The pressures are horrendous.”

Busch got hit in the face by Spencer following the GFS Marketplace 400, but his comments about the incident, his rivalry with Spencer and his opinions of what is acceptable on the track raised eyebrows in the garage area and spurred boos from the grandstands.

“I will be the first to admit I don’t get it right every time,” Harvick said. “It’s difficult. … It’s tough to compete in this level and not step out of line.”

Jeff Burton, 36, and a Roush Racing teammate of Busch, believes age brings wisdom.

“I’ve got the advantage of watching and participating in this sport and making mistakes that I can look back on,” Burton said. “I’m going to make mistakes in the future, there’s no doubt about it, but at the end of the day you’ve got to do what you think is appropriate.”

With its one-race suspension for Spencer and thousands of dollars in fines handed out to Harvick and his team following the Richmond incident, NASCAR has tried to keep a handle on the postrace activities.

“There’s nothing wrong with drivers showing their emotions,” said Jim Hunter, NASCAR vice president for corporate communications. “If you have the pit crews involved, though, that creates a whole new environment. It gets people caught up in it who shouldn’t be caught up in it.

“We don’t think that’s healthy; we don’t think it’s safe.”

Earlier this year, when he began competing in the Grand National Series, open-wheel standout Jimmy Vasser compared the environment in NASCAR to professional wrestling. Winston Cup driver Mark Martin said he was originally offended by Vasser’s remarks.

“I guess I’m embarrassed now that I was offended about that because I guess he’s smarter than I am,” Martin said. “He saw it long before I did.

“I don’t like it. I don’t agree with it, and I don’t think that we have to endorse that in order for our sport to grow and be successful. But there is a certain amount of fans loving that and having a good guy and a not-so-good guy to pull for or pull against.”