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RICHMOND, Va. -- Another week, another beef against Tony Stewart.
Stewart, who took a tongue lashing from Rusty Wallace in the media two weeks ago after the two got together at California Speedway, received yet another verbal barrage Saturday night following an incident with Jeff Gordon at Richmond International Raceway.
Stewart was running fourth on the final restart behind Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Gordon, and was the first car on new tires with 46 laps remaining.
Obviously the faster of the two machines, Stewart sped down into the Turn 3 to make the pass and hit Gordon, nearly wrecking the DuPont Chevrolet.
"I'm sure Jeff thinks I tried to take him out," Stewart said after the race.
Yep.
"We're seeing it every weekend, and you'd think a guy getting abuse by the media and the drivers would start thinking a little bit more," Gordon said. "He had a much faster car, fresher tires, got inside of me, and the position was his and he just drove straight into me and put me in the wall about put himself in the wall."
Stewart, who lashed out at FOX analyst Darrell Waltrip during a pre-race interview, explained that he wasn't the only driver to rub fenders Saturday.
"We got a little loose and I got into Jeff, and I'm sure Darrell and those guys up there (in the booth) are lobbying for me to get suspended for life from NASCAR," Stewart said. "But that's the only incident we had all night.
"There were a lot of guys with body rubs. If contact gets you a suspension for a race or two, we'll only have 18 cars next week. I had a top-three night until I ran into the 24, and I know he's mad at me.
"I just got down into Turn 3 and got loose. We made a change and that's probably what made it loosed - not to mention all the oil dry down there."
Earlier in the race, Stewart used cautious aggression while chasing Michael Waltrip, Darrell's brother, for the lead. Some speculated it was due to his recent rash of incidents.
"Well, you've got to keep in mind his brother up in the booth and he's been carrying a hatchet on me the last couple of weeks so we don't dare touch his little brother out there for fear he's going to crush me with the media," Stewart said.
"I think it's a joke anymore. It just happens that for a couple weeks in a row we got into it with people. Heaven forbid we accidentally have accidents. If you can't touch anybody and you've got to worry about it every race, I might as well quit this sport and go back to running Sprint cars, where there's none of this stuff.
"At least you're allowed to race there. You don't have to worry about people hacking you in the media every time you touch somebody."
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I actually see Tony's side to an extent about things getting out of control. But at the same time, Tony has caused the largest part of what is going on here.
Stewart, who took a tongue lashing from Rusty Wallace in the media two weeks ago after the two got together at California Speedway, received yet another verbal barrage Saturday night following an incident with Jeff Gordon at Richmond International Raceway.
Stewart was running fourth on the final restart behind Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Gordon, and was the first car on new tires with 46 laps remaining.
Obviously the faster of the two machines, Stewart sped down into the Turn 3 to make the pass and hit Gordon, nearly wrecking the DuPont Chevrolet.
"I'm sure Jeff thinks I tried to take him out," Stewart said after the race.
Yep.
"We're seeing it every weekend, and you'd think a guy getting abuse by the media and the drivers would start thinking a little bit more," Gordon said. "He had a much faster car, fresher tires, got inside of me, and the position was his and he just drove straight into me and put me in the wall about put himself in the wall."
Stewart, who lashed out at FOX analyst Darrell Waltrip during a pre-race interview, explained that he wasn't the only driver to rub fenders Saturday.
"We got a little loose and I got into Jeff, and I'm sure Darrell and those guys up there (in the booth) are lobbying for me to get suspended for life from NASCAR," Stewart said. "But that's the only incident we had all night.
"There were a lot of guys with body rubs. If contact gets you a suspension for a race or two, we'll only have 18 cars next week. I had a top-three night until I ran into the 24, and I know he's mad at me.
"I just got down into Turn 3 and got loose. We made a change and that's probably what made it loosed - not to mention all the oil dry down there."
Earlier in the race, Stewart used cautious aggression while chasing Michael Waltrip, Darrell's brother, for the lead. Some speculated it was due to his recent rash of incidents.
"Well, you've got to keep in mind his brother up in the booth and he's been carrying a hatchet on me the last couple of weeks so we don't dare touch his little brother out there for fear he's going to crush me with the media," Stewart said.
"I think it's a joke anymore. It just happens that for a couple weeks in a row we got into it with people. Heaven forbid we accidentally have accidents. If you can't touch anybody and you've got to worry about it every race, I might as well quit this sport and go back to running Sprint cars, where there's none of this stuff.
"At least you're allowed to race there. You don't have to worry about people hacking you in the media every time you touch somebody."
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I actually see Tony's side to an extent about things getting out of control. But at the same time, Tony has caused the largest part of what is going on here.
, it looked like Tony drove into the corner as he had before the pitstop. The adjustments made weren't exactly right and he was looser than he thought he'd be. Watching the rest of the race, it was pretty clear Tony's car wasn't the same as before the pit stop.
