Stewart spins, struggles to stay quiet with frustration

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Confrontations and Tony Stewart are like an ice cream sandwich to a dieter. In either case, it's almost impossible to keep your mouth shut.

A week ago, a frustrated Stewart left Phoenix International Raceway without making a mandatory post-race trip to the media center, a move which lightened his wallet by $10,000 and placed him on probation for the rest of the year.

Lap-by-Lap

Tony Stewart spent much of the race as a contender, but it ended early with him standing on the backstretch.

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In the middle of his satellite radio show on Tuesday, he lashed out at NASCAR's debris cautions, saying, "I don't know that they've run a fair race all year." That earned him an early-morning meeting Friday with three of NASCAR's top officials, including president Mike Helton, who were none too pleased with Stewart's opinions.

Speaking to the media afterward, Stewart understood he deserved the tongue-lashing.

"I know I did a lot of damage," he said. "I'm a lot of times my own worst enemy."

"I should have went to them instead of just saying it out in public. That's frustration that's been building up for weeks with me with all these debris cautions."

It wasn't a debris caution that got Stewart's goat Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway. Stewart even tried his best initially to avoid blaming anyone following a crash that involved Jamie McMurray and David Gilliland during the green-white-checkered finish that left him 28th in the Aaron's 499.

Restarting seventh with two laps remaining, Stewart was racing with McMurray when his No. 20 Chevrolet was knocked into the wall. He bounced off the outside wall, was rammed by Gilliland's car and went spinning into the inside wall (watch video).

He stayed near his wrecked car and gestured at McMurray and Gilliland the next time they passed by.

"We just got crashed," Stewart said. "We had [McMurray] just inside of us and I think [Gilliland] just inside of him. I really want to see the replay before I say anything, though."

Then Stewart just couldn't contain himself any longer (watch video).

"We've already crashed here," Stewart said while watching a television replay. "And then [Gilliland] just plows us for no reason. I guess he's still mad for the Busch race [Saturday] but ... no talent there, I guess."

Stewart was referring to an incident during the Aaron's 312, when Stewart and Gilliland made contact, which resulted in Gilliland spinning.

Cooler heads finally prevailed, as Stewart met Gilliland in the garage area later, had what was described as an amiable discussion and shook hands, according to Stewart's spokesman, Mike Arning.

"I was on the inside and there was two cars on the outside of me and we got together a little bit," Gilliland said. "But that's just the way these races end, especially when you've got a green-white-checkered."

Stewart started out in a great mood Sunday morning. He started 32nd but knew he had a car that could quickly get to the front and hopefully stay there. Even after being assessed a drive-through penalty for entering pit lane too quickly on Lap 44, Stewart admitted he was in the wrong.

"I can promise you I was probably 10 mph over the speed limit when I came in," Stewart said. "I just hadn't practiced it all weekend and I thought I was going to be all right. The biggest fear was that I didn't want to slide the tires because I thought we were going to do a two-tire stop. That carried too much momentum into the pit box."

Running by himself, Stewart was losing two seconds a lap to the pack. So it didn't take long for Stewart to go a lap down. Ironically, a debris caution 30 laps later gave Stewart the free pass.

He lost the draft again shortly after the green flag, dropping 18 seconds behind after narrowly avoiding another car. Stewart was able to close the gap when Clint Bowyer crashed on Lap 81, then survived another potential problem when he had to switch to his backup battery after the primary began to lose its charge.

Following his final pit stop on Lap 164, Stewart was 21st, but advanced to 13th -- wedged between Jimmie Johnson and eventual winner Jeff Gordon following a caution for debris 10 laps later. Those three led a charge from the bottom groove, with Stewart reaching seventh at the point where David Reutimann's blown engine brought out the yellow to set up the two-lap shootout.