Stewart Is Riding on Edge Again

Tony Stewart finished 16th Sunday in NASCAR’S Auto Club 500 at California Speedway and really never was a factor in his Home Depot Chevrolet. He certainly was a focal point, though, for the second consecutive week.

He had two early-race incidents, first banging doors with eventual winner Jeff Gordon, then bumping Rusty Wallace up against the wall, provoking Wallace into a tirade on national TV. Then, late in the race, he drove up behind Ricky Rudd, got the nose of his car under the Ford’s rear and briefly lifted it off the pavement.

An easy explanation: Hot racing in hot weather provokes hot tempers.

But then ...

Last week in the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway, Stewart ran into Kurt Busch’s car, touching off a 10-car crash. Then after the race, when fans unsatisfied with Gordon’s victory there in a yellow-flag finish were pelting the track with beer cans, Stewart made a 180-degree turn off the racing surface onto pit road, smashed into Terry Labonte’s car and continued the wrong way down pit road on his way to the garage area.

In 2002, Stewart won the then-Winston Cup championship, but his reputation as a get-out-of-my-way driver grew to the point where he was ordered to an anger-management course by sponsor and team owner Joe Gibbs.

Stock car racing is hardly a genteel sport and lots of things happen that fall into the category of “Well, that’s racing.”

Wallace, though, said Stewart had gone well beyond that.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with the guy,” he said. “He’s really screwing up a lot lately. He got me in the back really hard at Bristol. He got me in the back at Martinsville. He caused a huge wreck last week at Talladega, and then he runs me right through the fence this time.

“I’m on the outside, right up against the wall, and he comes flying up and drives through ... completely ruins the car. Then he pulls up beside me and starts flipping me off on the restart [after a caution period].”

John Darby, Nextel Cup series director, had a sit-down with Stewart here Friday morning on the Talladega incidents, but Wallace suggested that another course of action might be more effective.

“I’ll talk to him,” Wallace said. “I’ll talk to him right now. He needs a good talking to by somebody.... I’m going to do a lot better job [of that] than NASCAR will. I think I can help him a lot more, driver to driver. He’s in a ditch right now. He needs help.”

Wallace also said Stewart had lost the respect of other drivers.

“He needs to get his emotions in check,” Wallace said. “He’s going to have to go out there and start earning the respect of his peers again. He’s screwed up a lot of good cars here because he’s pouting.”

More like racing, Stewart said.

“We came off Turn 2 and got together and that put him in the wall,” he said. “But the corner before that, he drove right down into the left side of us, like we weren’t even there. So I don’t know why he’s pointing the finger at somebody else....

“He wants to talk about what I did to him at Bristol. Well, I remember a day when drivers were a little more cordial than they are today. When a faster driver came up ... guys who respect everybody would let them go, then work on their car and come back and get them later in the race.

“But Rusty’s not that way. He’s out for Rusty. He’s not going to move over for anybody....

“The deal off [Turn 2] was an accident. I don’t know if he tucked up against the side of it to get a pull in the draft or what, but I got real loose all of a sudden for no reason. I got into him and then pulled off as soon as I could.... I could have pinned him against the fence and I didn’t do that.

” ... I used to have a lot of respect for him too.... He had the opportunity to show me respect at Bristol [by moving over], but he didn’t do it. So I don’t know what he’s complaining about.”

Jimmie Johnson, running behind Wallace and Stewart when they had their get-together, took no sides.

“It was just a battle of strong-willed guys,” he said. “I was surprised they were racing so hard so early. I could see something was going to happen -- they were running so close, banging into each other. It was inevitable.”

Unless cooler heads prevail, sounds as though a Wallace-Stewart feud is too.