Stewart draws ire for recklessness

Monday, May 3, 2004 | 9:48 a.m.

FONTANA, Calif. -- Tony Stewart, who angered several drivers last week at Talladega with what some said was overly aggressive driving that triggered a multi-car accident, made at least one more enemy Sunday.

Stewart was involved in scrapes with Rusty Wallace and Jeff Gordon early in the Auto Club 500 at California Speedway. Wallace, who also was caught up in Kurt Busch's spin on lap 57, was the most vocal critic of Stewart's driving style.

"He's really screwing up a lot lately," Wallace said of Stewart. "He got me in the back really hard at Bristol. He got me in the back in Martinsville. He caused a huge wreck last week at Talladega and then he runs me right through the fence this time.

"Then he pulls up beside me and starts flipping me off on the restart. I wanted to get out of the car and whip his rear end."

Wallace was only warming up.

"I'm about sick of his childish actions; the boy needs to grow up a little bit. ... He's a good driver and he needs to act like it now instead of driving like an idiot and taking a bunch of cars out.

"I'll talk to him ... he needs a good talking-to by somebody. He's a good kid, but I'm not respecting him at all right now and half of the garage is not respecting him.

"I'm going to do a lot better job talking (to Stewart) than NASCAR will. I think I can help him a lot more, driver to driver. He's in a ditch right now; he needs some help."

Stewart saw the incident differently, calling it a racing accident, and then went on the offensive.

"It's easy to point fingers at a guy when he's down right now," Stewart said. "I'll just take it but if he wants to point fingers, then he can keep pointing fingers.

"I used to have a lot of respect for him, too. He wants to talk about respect, well, he had the opportunity to show me respect at Bristol and he didn't do it. So, I don't know what he's complaining about."

Jimmie Johnson, who was behind Wallace and Stewart during the incident, said both drivers were to blame.

"The problem was that they were racing so hard so early," Johnson said. "I could see that something was going to take place. It was just a matter of time because they were running into one another down the straightaway and not leaving each other a lot of room."

Stewart finished a lap off the pace in 16th place. Wallace, who spent considerable time in the garage repairing his car after the run-in with Busch, finished 57 laps off the pace in 35th.

Barrett hit the wall nearly head-on in the exit of Turn 2 after it appeared he had cut down a tire on his No. 94 Chevrolet. Barrett hit the new SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) barrier the speedway put in place before the race.

Barrett was transported by ground to Loma Linda Hospital after the crash and was examined and released.

"It felt like a tire was going down and that's how things got started," Barrett said. "I didn't have any control after that."

Barrett credited the SAFER barrier for allowing him to walk away from the accident with no injuries.

"I definitely commend NASCAR and California Speedway for the SAFER barriers," he said. "I started shooting up the track and, for some reason as I headed toward the wall, I remembered they were there.

"I thought, 'hey, maybe this won't hurt as bad.' It still hurt ... but not as bad as (hitting) concrete. I'm really glad those were in place and I think every driver in NASCAR should be happy, too."