Newman's bid to repeat ends after accident

CONCORD, N.C. -- Ryan Newman's bid to repeat as champion of The Winston ended against the wall at the start-finish line with four laps to go in the second segment Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

	Ryan Newman wasn't pleased after his early exit from The Winston. Credit: Autostock

But that was only the start of the show. Newman, whose car broke loose after a three-wide battle with Mark Martin and Ricky Craven, immediately went looking for someone.

"Who hit me?" Newman asked over the radio.

Newman crawled out of his crumpled race car and raised his arms, apparently at Tony Stewart, who was behind Newman before the spin.

Newman walked around to the right side of his car and tried to extinguish some flames coming out of the exhaust pipe with his foot. He then walked across the track, grabbed a piece of debris from his car and flung it into the infield grass.

The small flames weren't out, so Newman walked back to his car to put his foot over the exhaust. This time, they went out.

But Newman's temper wasn't any cooler. His faced glared as he took off his Hutchens Device and started walking up the frontstretch, likely looking for Stewart.

THE WINSTON  •  Unofficial Results

Stewart was nowhere to be found, as NASCAR had displayed the red flag, meaning the cars were stopped on the backstretch.

"I guess Tony Stewart was the only one to get Alltel any exposure tonight," Stewart said.

But told Stewart wasn't close to Newman's back bumper, and Newman's ire cooled.

"I don't know -- it snapped loose," Newman said. "I thought Tony hit me. They said he didn't. I don't know what happened then," Newman said. "I don't know what happened."

Stewart, after crashing out a few laps later, said there was "five feet" between he and Newman.