By Jerry Jordan, Editor
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – “I guess he’s frustrated I don’t know,” said Clint Bowyer, after unleashing a barrage of punches through the window of Ryan Newman’s car after the NASCAR All-Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
As Kyle Larson celebrated his $1 million win, doing donuts and burnouts that filled the frontstretch with tire smoke, Bowyer, in full sprint and still wearing his racing helmet, ran up to the window of Newman’s car as he dropped the window net and began pummeling the Indiana farm boy. Newman quickly exited the car but by then team members separated the two and both were headed to the NASCAR hauler.
Following a meeting with NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition, Scott Miller, both drivers spoke with Kickin’ the Tires to give their side of the story.
“The 14 cut across my nose early in the race and just about crashed himself,” Newman said, as he walked back to his hauler in the garage. “So, I went up to him after the race and tapped him in the bumper and let him know I didn’t appreciate how he was racing me. Then, he body slammed me and then I hit him back and he literally just cut across my nose coming to pit road or in Turn 3. So, he crashed himself. You can look at the data, the steering data, the SMP, watch the video everything, he just crashed himself. He’s just dumb that’s all.”
Newman was still upset about being punched while still sitting in his car and said, “That was just a display of lack of manhood, I guess, when you come up and try to fight someone with your helmet on sitting a car. That’s not, I mean, that Michael Waltrip material there.”
For his part, Bowyer said he didn’t know what made Newman angry but where he comes from the type of on-track activity gets a person, “poked in the nose.”
“We’ve raced each other and never had a problem,” Bowyer said. “I have no idea why he’s pissed off after the race. He obviously was. He deserved it. I mean, anybody does, my God, I have never been turned into the wall after a race before over racing somebody for last. By the way, I wasn’t even racing, I was riding around.”
With Bowyer sitting in a chair in the central part of the NASCAR hauler, the two exchanged looks as Newman exited the private meeting room where he had spoken with Miller. It was then Bowyer’s turn to give his side of the story.
“They had a little difference of opinion out there on the racetrack and they had a little difference of opinion here in the trailer,” Miller said. “We think we, kind of, understand what went on out there. I think they are in a pretty good place, we are going to keep an eye on it. You know we think we are in a good place with them but we will have to certainly monitor that next week and moving forward with those two.
“If there starts to be any shenanigans, we will intervene.”
Despite Miller’s belief that things have died down somewhat between the two and retaliation shouldn’t be an issue, Newman was clear that it wasn’t over. He declined to say when, or if, there would be a round two but added, “Oh, it’s never over. Not with doing what we do, I mean, that’s just the way it works.”
Miller said there would be no penalties stemming from the post-race kerfuffle but the sanctioning body was “borderline” on that decision. He added that although some fans like to see drivers going at in physically, it wasn’t what NASCAR wants to see.
“Some people think that’s great, some people don’t think that’s great,” Miller said. “It’s certainly not something we are going to promote or want them doing.”
When asked about whether video of the fight being posted on the news side of the company at NASCAR.com was promotion, Miller said, that was not what he did and that he is in charge of the competition side of things.