MARTINSVILLE, Va — In the case of Kasey Kahne vs. Brian Vickers, it’s he said, he said.
Kahne claims innocence, while Vickers didn’t hesitate in his accusations.
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The two drivers were involved in a Lap-161 incident that left Vickers without a hood on his car and looking for payback.
Kahne, feeling pressure from leader Jeff Gordon, caught Vickers in the left-rear corner panel of his car in Turn 4, sending the No. 55 around and into the inside wall. The Hendrick Motorsports driver said he had no intention of spinning Vickers, but that Vickers was using every lane that he could, coming close to hitting Kahne earlier in the lap in Turn 2.
“I was passing him and he ran me into the Turn 2 wall or he was going to, so I lifted. Then he blocked into 3, so I turned to go low and then he comes low and spun himself out,” Kahne said after being released from the infield care center for an unrelated incident on Lap 438.
Vickers disagreed.
“He definitely wrecked us on purpose the first time, I mean look at the video,” Vickers said. “He just hooked us in the bumper and just wrecked us, I don’t know why.”
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Vickers showed his displeasure 61 laps later. Going into Turn 1 and with Kahne on his outside, Vickers veered his car to the right and into Kahne’s No. 5 Chevrolet. Kahne spun and hit the outside wall and would go to the garage for repairs until Lap 253.
“He ran every lane that he could so I don’t understand why he was so mad,” Kahne said. “I was surprised when he spun me later.”
It only took 25 laps for Kahne to find Vickers again, turning him around in Turn 2 with 222 laps to go.
Vickers was heard on the radio saying “we could do this all day.” However, any further retaliation was squashed by a warning issued by NASCAR.
"Alright, we owe him another. We can do this all day long," Vickers says on radio.
— Jenna Fryer (@JennaFryer) October 26, 2014
“I don’t know what happened. It’s a shame because Kasey should have known better than to wreck us,” Vickers said. “I don’t know what he was thinking, but it didn’t work out too well for him."
Already eliminated from the Chase, Kahne had started 24th next to eventual race winner Dale Earnhardt Jr., but finished 40th.
“Yeah, it was a bad race for us,” Kahne said. “Hasn’t been a good year.”
Vickers, who celebrated his 31st birthday Friday, would have to enjoy the gift of just finishing, pulling his hood-less Toyota into the garage with a 27th place finish.