Kevin Harvick bookends his Martinsville race with apologies

Before Sunday's race at Martinsville, Kevin Harvick publicly apologized for the comments he made Saturday after he crashed with Ty Dillon, the grandson of his current team owner, Richard Childress.

After Sunday's race, Harvick was recalcitrant again after he made contact with Ryan Newman.

Saturday, Harvick crashed when Dillon made contact to his inside. After stopping in Dillon's pit box, infuriating Dillon's crew, Harvick said on Fox Sports' Raceday that the Dillons were the reason he was departing RCR for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014.

“I think there was just a lot of emotion involved," Harvick said. "I hate it for everybody at RCR. You go back and look at the things that happened, and sometimes you regret the things that you say for sure. Yesterday was definitely one of them. I hate it for my guys, and everybody working on the cars. Obviously, when those emotional situations come about; you say things that you really don’t want to say. I just want to apologize to all of those guys, work hard today and try and do everything we can to win the race."

Harvick had a good car throughout Sunday's race and was near the front of the field throughout much of the day despite a lack of water pressure and Harvick's fear that the car wasn't pulling off of the corners as well as it could. However, on lap 318, he got into Ryan Newman, the man he's effectively replacing at Stewart-Haas next year, and Newman spun around and backed into the wall.

Newman is heading to RCR next year.

"First thing I want to do is apologize to Ryan Newman," Harvick said after the race. "I tried to shoot in the gap there and clipped the right rear of his car. It doesn't make his day any better."

Harvick finished sixth, while Newman finished 38th. Harvick is fourth in the points standings, 28 points behind Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth.

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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