Tempers flare at RIR; Riggs loses points

RICHMOND, Va. -- A series of fender benders Friday night in the Funai 250 at Richmond International Raceway left a trail of bruised feelings and a new Busch Series point leader.

VIDEO CLIPS Wild finish at RIR Play video Riggs is upset at Hornaday Play video

The prime beneficiaries amidst the showers of sparks were race winner Johnny Sauter, who triumphed for the first time in 41 races; and David Green and Brian Vickers, who jumped into first and second in the standings, respectively.

The big losers included former point leader Scott Riggs, who fell from a 19-point advantage over Green to a 65-point deficit in third; and Jason Keller, who came into the race 70 points behind Riggs and ended the night fifth in the standings, 111 points back.

The last critical moment came on the 250th lap, when Sauter drilled leader Matt Kenseth from behind getting into Turn 3, knocking him from the lead to sixth.

He issued no apologies for that, or anything else.

Funai 250  Results  Standings  Video Highlights

"Matt got aggressive under caution, getting into me in Turn 1 and that kind of (ticked) me off," Sauter said. "He pulled kind of a chicken move going into Turn 1 on the caution -- I think he tried to take me out intentionally and I didn't really like that."

On a restart with three laps remaining, Kenseth cleanly drove around the outside of Sauter, who lined him up going into Turn 3 on the last lap.

"I was hungry," Sauter said. "I needed a win and I guess I needed it more than Matt did."

	Tire smoke flows from Shane Hmiel's Chevrolet. Tim Fedewa (left) tries to make his way through the mayhem.

The antics continued after the race when Kenseth drove up next to Sauter on the backstretch and body-slammed his car. Coming onto pit road, second place Kevin Harvick, who shares the No. 21 Chevrolet with Sauter, brake-checked Kenseth, apparently in retaliation for hitting Sauter.

"I just didn't want my teammate getting picked on," Harvick said. "Matt just ran into the back of him under yellow up there. I'm so proud of Johnny Sauter."

Earlier in the race, on lap 207 Riggs cut a tire down for the second time, in Turns 1 and 2 and then was run over by Mike Bliss in Turn 3 when he tried to get to the pits. Riggs made a lengthy stop for repairs and ended up 29th, 17 laps down.

"Ron Hornaday continues to prove he's the most disrespectful driver on the racetrack (but) of course, if you ask him he never does anything wrong," Riggs said. "When Mr. Disrespectful put me into the wall there (on a restart), it broke the right front shock.

"We were getting a lot of (shock) travel and we ended up cutting a right front tire down."

	Joey Clanton's crash brought out the first caution.

With less than 10 laps left, Keller's night ended when Shane Hmiel sailed into Turn 3 and took him and eighth place runner Tim Fedewa out. Keller ended the night in 21st, six laps down.

It got worse after the race when Keller, who declined to speak to the media after his mandatory trip to the infield care center, waited for Hmiel outside the NASCAR office trailer in the Busch garage.

He reportedly confronted Hmiel, after which he was taken into the office trailer for a meeting with Busch officials. Hmiel was also summoned to the trailer, and while he waited for his meeting, said he didn't understand Keller's actions.

"Coming up off of (Turn) 2, I got together with Brian Vickers pretty hard and it knocked me down to the apron," Hmiel said. "By the time I got it gathered up I was already at Turn 3 and I just went up the race track and collected him (Keller).

"It was no different if I had just spun out and collected him that way. It was just hard racing."