Bitter Ryan Newman takes shot at Tony Stewart's 'anger issues' after crash

Rea White

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Bitter Ryan Newman takes shot at Tony Stewart's 'anger issues' after crash image

Ryan Newman was caught up in a multicar crash late at Richmond International Raceway as he was battling to get into the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Tony Stewart and Newman made contact on Lap 363, sparking the crash that ended with Dylan Lupton’s car wedged between Newman’s and the wall. As Newman’s car piled into Stewart’s, Carl Edwards' car was pushing Newman's. David Ragan took a hard hit in the crash as well and ended up with severe front-end damage. Brian Scott’s car sat tail-end to Ragan’s on the track with the front end also destroyed.

Chris Buescher was also caught up in the incident, though he was able to drive away.

Newman was trying to move into the Chase for the Sprint Cup, while Buescher was fighting to stay in the top 30 in order to also make the Chase.

NASCAR red-flagged the race for cleanup.

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Newman was not pleased with Stewart after the crash. 

"I think it was pretty obvious watching the video," Newman said of the crash on NBC . "The 14 (of Stewart) cut across my nose into Turn 1 and I got into him after that but he had already chopped into me and messed up my line and I clipped him a little bit coming off of (Turn) 2 and then he just cut across my nose going down the back straightaway there. I guess he thought he was in a sprint car again, didn't know how to control his anger. So we'll fight and keep fighting like we always do. It's unfortunate. Not the ending that we wanted. 

"... Just disappointing that you've got somebody old like that that's retired, should be retired the way he drives, it's just ridiculous."

Newman said that there was no reason for Stewart to have hit him other than being "bipolar and having anger issues." He did pull his car back onto the track when the race restarted. 

Stewart offered his take on the incident after the race. He was told that Newman indicated Stewart had intentionally cut across his nose. 

"He was right," Stewart said. "That was the third time he'd driven into me during the night, and how many times does a guy get a free pass until you've had enough of it? He's got to do his part racing for a championship, too, and to race to get in there, and if you're going to run into guys ‑‑ I go into (Turn) 1 and he dive bombs in there. I'm already coming down, so it's not like I was trying to squeeze him in the infield or something. Ryan and I have been good friends. I don't do that to him. But he hits me in (Turn) 1, he hits me off of (Turn) 2, and it's like the third time by that time. 

"There was once early in the race that nobody saw. Three times, that's two more times than I normally let somebody run into me."

It was the latest in a series of crashes that had marred the late laps of the race. 

Matt Kenseth slammed into the wall, ending his race on Lap 336 of the 400 at Richmond International Raceway. Brad Keselowski appeared to miss a shift on a restart, was rear-ended by Kyle Busch and the field stacked up. Keselowski and Kenseth made contact and Kenseth hit the wall, ending his run. 

The Toyotas had been in control early in the race. Although Kenseth had led only three laps to that point, at one time the top five positions had been held by Toyota drivers. 

Cautions had been coming more quickly in the recent laps, with the caution coming out for Paul Menard on Lap 266, for an incident between Casey Mears and Matt DiBenedetto on Lap 280 and for Michael Annett on Lap 292. With 47 to go, DiBenedetto crashed again. 

Rea White