"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 window after the NASCAR All-Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
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 date, the steering data, the SMP, watch the video everything, he just crashed himself. He’s just dumb that’s all."
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."
"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."
— Kickin the Tires —