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Ryan Newman doesn't regret what he said about Tony Stewart at Richmond
The past five days haven’t made Ryan Newman regret the things he said about Tony Stewart following the drivers’ crash at Richmond on Saturday.
After Stewart drove Newman down the backstretch and the two ended up with mangled race cars, Newman said he guessed Stewart “thought he was in a sprint car, he couldn’t control his anger,” in a reference to the 2014 incident where Stewart struck and killed Kevin Ward in a dirt track race.
Newman then called Stewart “bipolar” and said his former team owner and teammate had anger issues. Stewart, who is facing a wrongful death suit from the Ward family regarding the accident, was not charged with a crime.
The two drivers met inside the NASCAR hauler Friday morning. After they exited, Newman had this to say via NBC Sports.
“I don’t have any regrets about what I said. I am frustrated by the situations and the actions that came about in respect to all of it and I think, most importantly, how it affected people that are associated with both of us. That is probably the roughest part.
“Nobody understands what we do in our business except us. You guys are there as soon as we walk out of the infield care center. No other sport is like that. It’s challenging. It doesn’t mean it makes us perfect or any better than any other athlete, but it’s different and challenging for other reasons.’’
Stewart has done his best to downplay the situation between the two drivers, noting their friendship and telling media that the story isn’t significant. He said Thursday he didn’t blame Newman for saying what he did following the accident.
NASCAR didn’t announce any punishment for either Newman or Stewart in its Wednesday penalty report. The reasons for not fining Newman for his comments are obvious; the fine would take away a lot of attention from Sunday’s start of the Chase and his comments weren’t disparaging NASCAR directly.
But it’s not that hard to make the case that Newman’s remarks deserved a fine. While the sport needs all the candor and personality it can get from its drivers, making an (at best) indirect reference to the involvement of anger in a tragic death can certainly be seen as denigrating to the sport.
Instead, NASCAR felt it was best to handle everything in-hauler. And if Stewart’s post-meeting tweet was any indication, the entirety of the chat among NASCAR officials and the two drivers wasn’t incredibly serious.
The last 30min in the NASCAR hauler was entertaining. Watching TV watching us and waiting for us to come out. ????
— Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart) September 16, 2016
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
