Stewart claims RCR's team orders ruined his shot at a Talladega victory on Sunday.
Oct 25, 2011 - Tony Stewart's chances at a Talladega win on Sunday were hurt by team orders in three different instances, he said Tuesday. And the driver/team owner is not happy about it.
"It's a shame, because I've never seen more politics in a race go on in my life than what I saw this weekend," Stewart said after meeting fans at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. "I think the car owners are to blame, the manufacturers are to blame and the fans don't deserve that."
On the final restart with two laps to go, Stewart was in fourth place and had teamed up with Richard Childress Racing's Paul Menard, who was starting right behind him.
Stewart was expecting Menard would push him to a chance at a potential victory. Instead, the pairing never went anywhere, and Stewart finished seventh.
What happened? According to Stewart, someone from RCR told Menard he could work with the No. 14 car as long as he didn't push Stewart past RCR's Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton, who were vying for the win.
How did Stewart know this was true?
"Somebody heard (Menard) change to a different channel and heard that conversation in the trailer on a scanner," Stewart said. "So it was really disappointing to hear something like that from an organization like (RCR)."
Childress has already denied giving Menard any such instructions. After the race, a reporter asked Childress if he told Menard to back off from helping Stewart.
"I went on Paul's radio and told him go up there and push Tony and try to win the race," Childress said. "I wanted him to win the race but I also wanted him to push Tony. That was just the way it was."
But that wasn't the only time in the race Stewart was potentially hurt by team orders.
3 comments
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bummer
I was listening to 24 radio, and heard Alan Gustufson say that the 14 wanted to be pushed if 24 was going to hook up. So the 27 was already there, and Jeff wanted to keep looking. So Alan told Jeff, the 27 is going to dump the 14. And Jeff was going back and forth with Alan, and Trevor. Bummer that 14 got punked. He fell into that trap. I am surprised that they his crew chief didn’t know, but Alan Gustufson knew.
by blurfan on Oct 25, 2011 7:35 PM EDT reply actions
I don’t know why anyone would be surprised that Childress would do that. He had Menard spin out intentionally to help Harvick. Don’t expect Nascar to do anything. They let Dillon pass below the line twice in the truck race.
by carol-88-fan on Oct 26, 2011 6:19 AM EDT reply actions
Stewart Changed his Tune
It’s interesting that Tony starts accusing Paul of dumping him, when right after the race on the radio he apologized to his crew for having a bad restart. Paul and team were happy that Tony was going to work with him, Richard Childress himself told Paul to change from working with the 9 car saying something to the effect “We can win this.” Also Stevie Reeves encouraged Paul after Stewart turned down Gordon.
This sounds a lot like Stewart got out of the car and was down about it, and his team starts tossing blame in other directions. It’s not like Paul was pushing Tony around Harvick. Also, how why would Childress pull a dog from the fight when no one could have known Bowyer and Burton were going to check out.
Tony hit the nail on the head though. NASCAR needs to fix the joke these races have become. Back in pack racing people were hung out all the time by different teams, but it was “socially acceptable” because they weren’t entered into a verbal pact, and one car could win the race on their own.
by Guy Snyder IV on Oct 26, 2011 9:22 AM EDT reply actions
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