Personally, I like them both. No matter how the passion rises to the surface, for motor racing to work as spectacle, from time to time there has to be more than a demonstration of commitment behind the wheel.

Stateside this weekend, there was Tony Stewart dressing down teammate Denny Hamlin at Daytona. Although “Smoke” can be acused of having only one gear (high dander), in effect Hamlin was stuck in one gear (lead-the-race-at-all-costs). Hamlin used more ego than discretion with an ill-handling car in the opening laps and got hit by “Big Orange” after slowing precipitously in the groove. Then Tony let his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate have it with the hot air gun as well.

At Watkins Glen, Tony Kanaan got blasted by Sam Hornish for cutting him off in the pit road at the end of the cool-down lap after the two got out, another good call. What happens on the track, as far as the cars go, should stay on the track.

When Hornish’s father jumped in and shoved Kanaan on the pit road, things got out of hand much like fights at the high school dance. (Everybody grabs a partner and they all go down in a heap.)

These guys never fight as well as they drive, it seems. I happened to be in victory lane at Texas when Arie Luyendyk went down after one sucker punch from A.J. Foyt. The Dutchman never got in a single lick, unless you count telling Foyt and his driver Billy Boat that the trophy they were receiving belonged to him.

(Luyendyk turned out to be right a day later when totally confused scoring handled by USAC was double-checked; he got the win and USAC got the boot.)

Given Danica Patrick’s outburst versus Dan Wheldon in Milwaukee and now the Kanaan vs. Hornish duel, the blood is less than placid between the teams of Andretti Green, Chip Ganassi Racing and Penske Racing.

Back in the Old World this weekend, a torrid donnybrook broke out as Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes and Honda all hurled legal klag around on issues ranging from sabotage to the passing of proprietary secrets.

At the center of the storm, Ferrari’s Jean Todt played the role of Wimpy. “I will gladly give you an answer on Tuesday,” he replied to all questions. That’s the day the High Court in Britain goes public with the accusations of industrial espionage-type thievery by Ferrari against McLaren’s designer.

Did this load the emotional docket at the British Grand Prix, where the two dominant teams faced off on the track? Was Ferrari’s victory on the British team’s home turf with former McLaren driver Kimi Raikkonen that much sweeter, given the post-race court precedings? More than likely. Will the crack in the McLaren armor be further breeched by Tuesday’s procedings? Stay tuned, says Todt.

So there you have it. Gudge matches in all directions on both sides of the pond, within teams and between teams. Tune in Tuesday and at racing rings everywhere in the coming weekends.

Jonathan Ingram can be reached at jingram666@cs.com.