Stewart hit with fine, probation for incident
By Dave Rodman, Turner Sports Interactive
March 26, 2001
7:10 PM EST (0010 GMT)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Tony Stewart, who rammed his car into Jeff Gordon's on pit road at Bristol Motor Speedway in retaliation for a last lap incident in Sunday's Food City 500, has been fined $10,000 and placed on probation for five months, NASCAR announced Monday.
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As a result of his action, Tony Stewart will be on probation until August 29.
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Stewart, who was running in fourth position on the 500th lap of the high-speed, high-banked half-mile concrete oval, spun between Turns 3 and 4 when he apparently tried to block Gordon's attempt to pass him and the two cars made contact.
Gordon drove his No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet underneath Stewart's No. 20 Home Depot Pontiac going into Turn 3 on the final lap and put two-thirds of his car on the flat apron of the 36-degree banked turn when Stewart turned down into the corner.
The cars made contact with the right front of Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports Chevy hitting the left rear of Stewart's Joe Gibbs Racing Pontiac.
Stewart spun between Turns 3 and 4 and what had appeared to be a certain top-five finish became a 25th-place result. On the race's cool-off lap, Stewart drove up behind Gordon, who was already on pit road, and ran into Gordon's car with enough force to spin it sideways into the wall that separates the pits from the race track.
Stewart was fined and placed on probation until Aug. 29 for violating Section 12-4-A in the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup Series rule book: " . . . actions deemed by NASCAR Officials as detrimental to stock car racing. . ."
Gordon and Stewart, their crew chiefs and Gibbs and Hendrick Motorsports president John Hendrick were summoned by NASCAR officials to a meeting in the NASCAR office trailer that included NASCAR president Mike Helton and NASCAR Winston Cup director Gary Nelson.
Gordon exited the trailer about 20 minutes later, followed several minutes later by Stewart's group.
Despite their similar USAC open-wheel backgrounds, the pair did not race together in that forum, but since Stewart came to Winston Cup racing the pair has had at least one well-documented clash, when they collided at the top of the "esses" at Watkins Glen International last season.
"That didn't surprise me one bit," Gordon said of Stewart's hit on pit road. "I guess Tony didn't realize I was underneath him down the back straightaway, 'cause it's pretty obvious to me. I guess somebody didn't tell him I was there because it was pretty obvious.
"I did everything I could to keep from hitting him. I was sideways too, and he just came down. I don't want to come to the last lap like that, but if you've got a position and you've been working on it for a long time, you're going to do it and you're going to take everything you can all the way to the end. I thought that it was pretty clean."
"We just went in the corner on the last lap together," Stewart said Sunday after leaving the meeting. "My spotter told me he was looking low. By looking at the tape, he was a little lower than that. But I didn't see him at the door and I know that any time the roles have been reversed he's expected me to lift.
"It's just racing. It's just Bristol. It's just part of the deal. The reason we ended up in the (NASCAR) trailer is because I spun him on the pit lane and that was wrong. I could have hurt somebody, in all reality. I apologize to Home Depot and all of our sponsors for doing that because that wasn't right."
On March 19, NASCAR officials fined Busch Series drivers Ryan Newman and Tim Fedewa $5,000 apiece and put Newman on probation until Dec. 31, 2001 for making contact with each other's cars following the checkered flag in the SunCom 200 at Darlington Raceway on March 17.
After the conclusion of the race on the 1.366-mile oval, Fedewa's car made contact with Newman's, causing it to spin out. Newman caught up with Fedewa's car on the pit access road -- not yet on pit road -- and ran into it, causing it to spin out.
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