The snarl on his face never left as Tony Stewart stormed past reporters on his walk down pit road following Sunday’s MBNA Armed Forces Family 400 at Dover International Speedway. He walked past Ryan Newman’s car, which was coming in for its coronation in victory lane, and snarled again. Then he stopped, turned around and yelled an expletive. It was hard to determine if it was directed at Newman, who prevented Stewart from getting back on the lead lap midway through the race, or if it was directed at the unknown NASCAR official who penalized Stewart one lap for stopping outside the box on a pit stop. Afterward, Stewart kept walking briskly to his trailer, the snarl omnipresent. He whipped the door open and slammed it shut, disappearing for good. After several minutes, Stewart’s public relations director emerged and said Stewart had left. “How?” he was asked. “You must have blinked,” the P.R. director responded.( Delaware News Journal )(6-2-2003) UPDATE: Stewart soon had a chance to get his lap back, and when a yellow flag came, he needed to beat leader Newman to the start-finish line to do so. One of the sport’s unwritten rules says if a race leader can let a driver he thinks isn’t a threat to win back onto the lead lap, he should. The way Stewart was running, he clearly could have been considered a threat. Newman certainly thought he was. Imagine what Newman would be dealing with, had he allowed Stewart back on the lead lap and Stewart won the race. As it was, Stewart finished fourth and moved up to 16th in points, so that would have been a real possibility. Stewart, who didn’t talk to the media after the race, was still able to clearly express his feelings with the following: Nearly putting Newman into the wall during the ensuing caution. Making an obscene gesture toward Newman’s crew during a later pit stop. Yelling at Newman’s crew chief, Matt Borland, after the race. “We’re racers,” said Newman. “We compete against each other and try to be friends, but it’s a competitive sport. He’s not going to invite me to dinner tonight. There have been times I haven’t wanted to invite him to dinner either, but we can get through it. To me, it was his own fault. What happened, happened.”( Charlotte Observer )(6-3-2003)
