Tempers flare in Vegas after late-race incident

LAS VEGAS -- Temperatures rose dramatically as the Busch Series Sam's Town 300 wound down Saturday.

And so did the action. The sign out front says "Las Vegas Motor Speedway," but it seemed an awful lot like Richmond.

Then again, maybe it was Richmond. After all, it was Johnny Sauter vs. Matt Kenseth again.

SAM'S TOWN 300  •  Results  •  Standings

During a restart on Lap 180, Johnny Sauter and Matt Kenseth got together in Turn 2. Both were racing for the lead at the time, and Sauter had the car of Michael Waltrip on the outside.

Kenseth's car suffered major damage all the way down the right side. He limped home sixth after dominating the last half of the race.

Sauter ended up 16th, while Waltrip rallied to finish fourth.

VIDEO CLIPS Kevin Harvick gets lucky in Las Vegas Play video Hear from the top finishers at Las Vegas Play video Harvick holds off Kahne in the final laps Play video Contact with Sauter sends Blaney to the garage Play video Kenseth and Kahne battle for the lead early Play video A multi-car crash on lap 32 at Las Vegas Play video

Sauter faces the likelihood of a fine from NASCAR this week after he was quoted on PRN saying that Waltrip's No. 99 Chevy was "three-wide, doing stupid (expletive)" on the restart.

After the race, Sauter calmed down. But not much.

"You got lapped cars that shouldn't even be running," Sauter said. "I won't mention any names, but he drives the 99 car.

"It cost us a win, or at least a top-five."

"I wonder if he remembers Daytona when he took out 12 of us and I did a barrel-roll down the back straightaway," Waltrip told PRN.. "If Johnny Sauter never runs another race, it won't be any sweat off (me)."

Sauter had taken the lead just before the accident after Kenseth chose to dive onto pit road for fresh tires on lap 171, giving him tires that were much fresher than Sauter's.

And it showed. Kenseth got a good restart.

"Matt had him passed, and he (Sauter) just drove into the door," said Tony Liberati, Kenseth's crew chief.

Sauter won the fall Busch Series event at Richmond in 2003 after bumping Kenseth on the final lap.

"If you can't beat 'em, run into 'em, I guess," Liberati said. "That is what he did (today), and that is what he did to him at Richmond."