Payback is a ...
About the only intriguing subplot in Sunday's Dover race -- no, not how many laps the No. 8 would finish behind the leader -- was the Tony Stewart-Jeff Gordon incident. The short version: Stewart was behind Gordon. Stewart was faster. Gordon wouldn't let him by. So Stewart shoved him out of the way -- right into his DNF of the year and a 39th-place finish.
After the race, Gordon accused Stewart of being impatient. Stewart said Gordon was whining as usual and added: "We can get into a car-crashing war. It does not matter to me."
Ouch.
If anything, though, this is Stewart's return salvo in a long-running battle between the drivers of the No. 20 and the No. 24.
The two drivers got into it at Watkins Glen in 2000. (Stewart got the better of this one: He finished 17 spots ahead of Gordon and derailed his quest for seven straight road-course wins.) At the 2001 spring race at Bristol, Stewart wrecked (or got wrecked) on the last lap when he turned down into Gordon. (Stewart got the worst of that one: NASCAR put him on probation after he spun Gordon as Gordon waited in the pits after the race.)
So who won this round? Stewart. He finished 15th and moved up one spot in the standings to fifth -- six ahead of Gordon.
Just one of them racin' deals, right?
Due to recent automated spamming attacks on our blogs, we are temporarily requiring commenters to authenticate themselves via TypeKey® before posting comments to any News & Record blog in order to prevent denials of service. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.