Dover, Del. – Tony Stewart says he’s tired of Jeff Gordon’s “whining” and isn’t worried about retaliation for the spinout Sunday that dropped the four-time champion from the top 10 in the NASCAR Nextel Cup standings.
Gordon was hoping to become the most prolific winner among active drivers Sunday at Dover International Speedway. But that hope was put on hold on the 42nd lap – thanks to Stewart.
Gordon was exiting the second turn when the right front of a closely pursuing Stewart’s car tapped his left rear, and Gordon hit the wall. Ricky Rudd, like Gordon a four-time winner on The Monster Mile, also crashed in the aftermath.
“I guarantee that next time Tony’s in my way, it won’t take but about a half a lap for him to be out of my way,” Gordon said. “Tony was a little bit better than me, and no doubt I held him up. I just think he ran out of patience.”
Stewart said he won’t be intimidated by the threat.
“That’s fine,” he said. “We can get into a car crash. It really doesn’t matter to me.”
He made no attempt to avoid blame for the crash but said Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman don’t understand the need to let a faster driver go by.
“If somebody does something to Jeff, it’s always their fault,” Stewart said. “Jeff’s always whining like that.
“Everybody else was doing a pretty good job of give and take. It’s just when you get around Jeff, I guess the rules are different with him.”
Stewart said he got close to Gordon to let him know he was faster and expected to be let through. Had the situation been reversed, Stewart said he would have moved over.
The crash was another disastrous result for Gordon, whose 39th-place finish came on the heels of a 36th last week in the Coca-Cola 600, when teammate Brian Vickers wrecked him as Gordon was contending for the victory. Two weeks earlier, an accident in Richmond resulted in a finish of 39th for Gordon. He now trails series leader and teammate Johnson by 350 points.
Earlier Sunday, Delaware- based DuPont announced a two-year extension through 2008 of its primary sponsorship agreement with Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports team.
Earnhardt’s rough ride
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is having a dreadful season – so bad that he’s in jeopardy of missing the Chase for the Nextel Cup.
Earnhardt is 418 points behind series leader Johnson halfway to the 26-race cutdown for title contention.
If the season ended now, Earnhardt would not be part of the elite 10 in the final 10-race segment of the Nextel Cup season. And a finish of 22nd on Sunday left him both emotionally and physically drained.
“I’m actually pretty sore from the car bouncing and throwing me around so much,” he said. “I felt like a paint-can shaker with a cinder block tied to my back.”
