Rusty Wallace and Tony Stewart get in trouble
Wallace blasts Stewart after early-race incident
By Marty Smith, Turner Sports Interactive May 2, 2004
9:13 PM EDT (0113 GMT)
FONTANA, Calif. -- Tony Stewart's on-track aggression has been a topic of concern for several weeks now, so much so that Nextel Cup Series director John Darby sat the former champion down for an ol' fashioned talkin' to late last weekend.
Following the pow-wow, Darby said the issue was dead.
Rusty Wallace begs to differ.
Following a collision with Kurt Busch on Lap 58 of Sunday's Auto Club 500, Wallace exited his car, surveyed the extensive damage to the left front of his ride, then stormed off to his transporter.
Several minutes later, he emerged with a verbal lashing for Stewart.
"I'll talk to him, right in the eye. He needs to a good talkin' to by somebody," Wallace said. "I'm gonna do a lot better job talking to him than NASCAR will. I'm going to talk to him driver-to-driver.
"He needs some help. He's in a ditch right now. I don't know what's wrong with the guy. I like the fella. He's a good friend, but he's really screwing up a lot lately."
Wallace named several instances this year when he received what he considered unnecessary hits from Stewart, including one early in Sunday's race.
"He got me in the back really hard at Bristol, got me in the back real hard at Martinsville, caused a huge darn wreck last week at Talladega then runs me right through the fence this time," Wallace said.
"I'm on the outside, right against the wall, and he comes flying up and drives through me, knocks the side off of it, completely ruins the car.
"Then, he pulls up alongside and starts flipping me off on the restart. I wanted to get out of the car and whip his rear end, I'll tell you what. The kid needs to calm down a little bit. He's really frustrated for some reason."
Stewart saw it differently, saying Wallace was the instigator.
"We came off of (Turn) 2 and we got together, and that put him in the wall," Stewart 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."
Jimmie Johnson, Sunday's second-place finisher, had a front row seat for the skirmish.
"I think what you had today was a battle of two very strong-minded guys, competitive guys," Johnson said. "Being behind it, I saw those guys racing really hard. Nobody was doing anything wrong.
"The problem was they were racing so hard, so early, that they were so close it sucked the air off the back of (Stewart) and took (Wallace) into the fence. I could see something was going to take place, it was just a matter of time."
Ironically, it was Wallace that stood up for Stewart in the media this past week. Folks wanted answers why Stewart was having so many on-track run-ins. He'd gotten into Andy Hillenburg and Kasey Kahne at Darlington and hit Scott Wimmer during a caution at Bristol.
Last week at Talladega, he hit Kurt Busch to trigger the "Big One," then swerved into Terry Labonte after taking the checkered flag.
Wallace said his defense of Stewart is over.
"I'm not sticking up right now, 'cause I'm about sick of this childish action," Wallace said. "The boy needs to grow up a little bit. I think he's just frustrated. I don't know. He's just got to keep his emotions in check. I'm tired of getting taken out by him. This is ridiculous."
Wallace said he felt Stewart had lost respect from many of his peers this season.
"He's a good kid, but hey, we respect everybody out in this field and I'm not respecting him at all right now," Wallace said. "Half the garage area's not respecting him. He's going to have to get out there and earn the respect his peers again, because he's screwed up a lot of cars because he's pouting."
Joe Gibbs Racing president J.D. Gibbs doesn't view it as much of an issue.
"He had a meeting with Darby the other day and that went pretty well, so as far as we're concerned, that was racing, there," said Gibbs of the run-in with Wallace. "I was watching the replay, and I don't think either of them had seen it yet.
"I'm sure (Wallace) is frustrated. His car is totaled now. I'm not sure how much Tony had to do with that. This is racing. More often than not, you'll walk away unhappy."
Wallace's team repaired the damage and returned him to action 43 laps down. He finished 57 laps down in 35th position.
"I had a good top-10 car. I don't know what (Stewart is) driving like that for. I'm tired of poor lil' ol' Tony right now. He needs to get his act together. He's a good driver and needs to act like one instead of driving like an idiot and taking a bunch of cars out."