Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Blaney are still feuding over an incident last week at Watkins Glen where contact between the two drivers sent Johnson spinning off course.
Are you Team Jimmie Johnson or Team Ryan Blaney? pic.twitter.com/dMQUNOvxXL
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After the race, Johnson and Blaney exchanged words in a tense scene.
Johnson told NASCAR.com Friday he's still waiting for an apology, but Blaney said he apologized after the race — even though he said the incident wasn't his fault in the first place.
“We know what happened on the track … the drivers do,” Johnson said. “There was a window of opportunity there from my standpoint for Ryan to handle it a certain way, to engage in at least the way that I know I have when it wasn’t on purpose and I have yet to see or hear from him. So, that only validates my line of thought and how angry I was in the car.”
Blaney offered his side of the story.
“I have nothing to apologize about,” he told NASCAR.com. “He came down on me. I apologized to him right then and there, even though it was his fault. I have a lot of respect for Jimmie — or had a lot of respect — that’s why I kind of let him chew my a-- out for a minute, minute-and-a-half or whatever he did and I didn’t go back into him, especially when he put a finger in my face.
“Then his comments after we got done talking pretty much threw all that out the window. That respect is very little.”
It's clear Johnson is still frustrated by the event, which contributed to him finishing 19th. The seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup champion is tied for 16th in the point standings, the last driver in the playoff field with four races remaining until the postseason.
After the race, Johnson claimed Blaney's move was "stupid … he just drove right through me," and claimed he couldn't understand what Blaney was saying because "his lips were quivering."
When informed Johnson had said he was scared, Blaney responded, "He said I was scared? … If he wanted to go, we could go."
Friday, Blaney declared "I'm over it" when asked about the racing incident and the postrace discussion.
“I was there and he came down across me, then we talked about it after the race,” Blaney said. “You do that to yourself and then expect me to apologize for that? It’s not like I flat ran him over. I told him that. … It’s his doing, but he wants to be mad at me about it.”