Multicar crash leads to scuffle on pit road

JOLIET, Ill. -- An incident on the track between Kasey Kahne and Tony Stewart during Sunday's Tropicana 400 at Chicagoland Speedway spilled over onto pit road.

On a restart on lap 127, Kahne led the field to the green flag, followed by Sterling Marlin and Stewart. As the field headed for Turn 1, after Stewart got by Marlin, his car appeared to tap Kahne's car from behind, spinning the No. 9 Dodge sideways into the outside wall.

	Ray Evernham (left) meets with Kasey Kahne after the accident. Credit: Autostock

Stewart went on to win the race, while Kahne was saddled with a 36th-place finish and a beat-up car.

"I got around the 40 car and got into the slot," Stewart said. "I started checking up, then he checked up. I don't know if somebody was pinching him to where he had to get out of the gas, if he missed a shift or what.

"I was right on his butt but all of a sudden he checked up and I don't know what happened. But that was a bad deal.

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"We could have been taken out as easily as anybody. I hate it for him."

Obviously, Kahne had a completely different opinion of what happened.

"As I put it into fourth gear, my car turned right, right into the wall," Kahne said. "Obviously, (Stewart) was right in the back of me. I don't know why he did that, or what happened there.

"He had the car to beat all day. All he need to do was go through a couple of corners and he would have probably passed us."

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

Shortly thereafter, Kahne's crew chief, Tommy Baldwin Jr., went down to the No. 20 Chevrolet pit stall and a scuffle broke out between members of both crews, with several crewmen ending up being knocked to the concrete. As Nextel Cup officials attempted to separate the combatants, Baldwin was led away, his face crimson and his shirt unbuttoned.

At least seven other cars including John Andretti, Dave Blaney, Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, Scott Riggs and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were involved. Blaney and Kahne were seen and released from the infield medical center.

Gordon was able to recover and finish fourth while Andretti was 16th.

Burton was solidly in the top 10 when the incident occurred. He wound up 33rd, 70 laps down.

"All I saw was the 9 car sitting sideways," Burton said. "Obviously, someone got into him or something, and there was just nowhere to go."

"I had it pretty much cleared. The guys behind me didn't get slowed down. They didn't do anything wrong, behind me, it's just one of those big wrecks."