Evernham: 'He needs to get suspended'

JOLIET, Ill. - If Tony Stewart wanders down a dark alley any time soon, he probably better be on the lookout for Ray Evernham.

Evernham had some harsh words for Stewart during Sunday's Tropicana 400 at Chicagoland Speedway after a Stewart bump sent Evernham's Kasey Kahne spinning out of the lead.

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As Kahne's crew worked to repair the damaged No. 9 Dodge, Evernham lashed out at Stewart.

"He definitely needs to get suspended, and he should have his ass beat," Evernham said. "That's the problem with him. Nobody has ever really grabbed him and given him a good beating. If he doesn't get suspended, maybe I'll do that.

"He crashed a bunch of cars, and he's leading the race. That doesn't say a lot for him right now."

Later, during Stewart's post-race press conference, Stewart said, "I really don't care" what Evernham said.

	Tony Stewart Credit: Autostock

"I'm not even interested in looking at them," Stewart said. "We didn't need the accident with him to win the race. We had the strongest car. That wasn't going to make the race or break the race for us."

Stewart had the dominant car Sunday, leading five times for 160 laps. But Kahne had the lead on a restart on lap 127 when Stewart got into the back of Kahne's No. 9 Dodge.

"He got up against the back of him after he shifted and stayed on him and pushed him probably for 50 or 60 feet before he finally spun out," Evernham said. "You know when you're up against the back of somebody."

Stewart said he wasn't sure what happened, only that Kahne suddenly slowed as the fielded headed into Turn 1. Stewart also said Kahne was "one of last guys" he wanted to get in an incident with.

"We've been the hot topic of discussion all year," Stewart said. "I'm a pretty black-and-white guy. If I make a mistake, I tell you guys I make a mistake. A lot of times I'm not proud of it and proud of what I do, but I'm telling you, whatever happened today, I didn't do it."

Zipadelli: 'He didn't do that intentionally'

	Greg Zipadelli

Stewart's crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, vehemently defended his driver.

"Because we've been in a few altercations this year, all of a sudden, automatically, you're guilty," Zipadelli said. "I think sometimes you've got to be honest and say, 'Did he intentionally do that? Was that a racing deal? Did the 9 car slip?'

"I will guarantee you one thing: He didn't do that intentionally. If you think that he did, I'll never talk to you again."

NASCAR had no penalty for Stewart during the race.

VIDEO CLIPS Victory Lane Play video Hear from the top-five finishers Play video Robby Gordon, Jeff Green tangle late in the event Play video Contact between Stewart and Kahne leads to a pit road scuffle Play video Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch wreck in the early laps Play video

"We determined that was a racing incident and nothing more," NASCAR spokesman Herb Branham said. "If there were going to be any penalties because of that racing incident, they would have been called during the event."

But there likely will be penalties for the melee in the pits after the crash. Tommy Baldwin, crew chief for Kahne, went to Stewart's pit. A few moments later, several Kahne crewmen arrived, and a fight broke out.

"I was going to talk to Zippy and tell him his driver's a moron," Baldwin said. "I got off the pit box, and he started pushing me. Then the (NASCAR) official grabbed me. I don't know what happened after that."

That wasn't how Zipadelli saw it.

"Tommy and a bunch of boys came over and started hollering and pushing and shoving," Zipadelli said. "I'm not driving the car. All I can do is say, 'I'm sorry.' I think you can watch the tape as many times as you want. There was (nothing) intentional."

Stewart car owner J.D. Gibbs said he spoke with a NASCAR official about the incident, and, "The way he saw it was the way I hope he'd have seen it," Gibbs said.

Stewart didn't know about the fight until he got to Victory Lane, when Zipadelli made sure he spoke to his driver.

	Tommy Baldwin

"I got penalized for going and trying to talk to a guy after a race," Stewart said. "I wasn't even upset until after the guy provoked me down there. So if I should get penalized for it, I think he should get penalized for it."

Branham said any penalties would be announced later this week at the earliest.

"We've already started looking into that," Branham said. "We're speaking to the individuals involved, and we're going to continue to do so, gathering as much information as possible, as we always do in this situation."

Evernham said he didn't condone those kind of incidents, but he was adamant about Stewart.

"Does someone have to get hurt?" Evernham said. "Is that what it's going to take ... before they do something?"

Stewart didn't care.

"The main thing is we won a race again," Stewart said.