No. 20 team unhappy with Menard after pit road crash

CONCORD, N.C. -- Don't expect the crew for the No. 20 Chevrolet driven by Tony Stewart to be sending any holiday invitations for Thanksgiving or Christmas to the crew for the No. 15 Chevy driven by rookie Paul Menard.

They might, however, send over a cold turkey stuffed with sour grapes -- or something more foul.

Greg Zipadelli, crew chief for Stewart, was upset with Menard and his crew after a pit-road incident during Saturday night's Bank of America 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. The resulting damage pretty much ended any chance Stewart had of winning the race, although he did rally after falling back to finish a respectable seventh.

The accident occurred on Lap 177 of the 334-lap event when Stewart was attempting to leave his pit stall as Menard was trying to enter his, one slot in front of Stewart. But Menard blocked Stewart's exit and their two cars briefly touched before Menard proceeded on to his stall. Then Stewart tried to exit again and rammed into Kasey Kahne's No. 9 Dodge, doing severe damage to the right front of Stewart's car (watch video).

"The blame is I don't think either one of them have any respect for each other," Zipadelli said of Menard and Stewart. "Getting into the 15, I don't know. I just know his crew was clapping when we were working on our car. That's kind of uncalled for and unprofessional.

"But, you know, I'm a believer in what goes around comes around. Someday he'll be good enough to be in that situation -- maybe, if he's lucky -- and that'll probably happen to him or he'll lose something because he didn't have respect or any give-and-take with other people. We can't control what others do and how they act. All we can do is control how we respond to situations."

While Stewart recovered after the mishap to pull out the seventh-place finish, that was regarded as a small and hollow victory by Zipadelli.

"I thought we had a top two or three car," Zipadelli said. "But obviously with the conditions that right-front fender was in and all that, everybody did a good job -- because normally you can't even salvage that out of it, these cars are so aero-sensitive."

What really irked Zipadelli was the fact that Saturday marked the second time since the Chase for the Nextel Cup began that Menard, who is not in the Chase, has tangled with Stewart on the track. They also got into it after their first pit stop in the race at Dover on Sept. 23, when Stewart angrily and unwisely bumped Menard after he thought the rookie crowded him in the pits.

And while the major damage suffered to Stewart's car Saturday came when he hit Kahne, Zipadelli made it clear that he thought Menard was at fault for setting off a chain reaction.

"Well, you know, the 15 car was a minor thing. And then everybody got hollering on the radio and never even saw the 9 car. And that's what did the damage," Zipadelli said. "The 15 just stripped the paint off and didn't really do it.

"But he could have, with us rolling out, it would have been real easy to give us the go-ahead. Not that he has to, but it's a give-and-take. You have respect for people and when they're racing for something that you're not, you usually do that. And if you don't, the roles will be reversed someday."

Zipadelli admitted that his own crew could have handled the night better, too.

"We made too many mistakes," Zipadelli said. "We had a really good racecar at the halfway point, which is kind of what our goal was. We were in the top five, running some of the better laps -- the best laps we had run. And in comparison to the other guys, I think we were a top two or three car at the worst at that time.

"But we made some mistakes on pit road and then didn't get it fixed the way we needed to. So I'm a little frustrated. We should be better than that. Those things happen, but they shouldn't happen to us. We need to be a little more intense and think about everything, and be aware of everything. I don't know. It just seems like that's our season right now. We'll keep digging. We'll never give up. It's just a little frustrating, that's all."

Stewart remains fourth in points, but with only five Chase races remaining he now trails leader Jeff Gordon, who won Saturday's race, by 198 points. Stewart had entered the Bank of America 500 trailing Gordon by 154 and only 91 points out of third -- but now trails third-place Clint Bowyer by 120.

Gordon said he doesn't care about all those numbers.

"I'm going to say the same thing I said about Tony last week," Gordon said. "Until he is mathematically out of it, he's a threat. I just know how good he is and how good his team is."

Zipadelli agreed with Gordon's assessment of his team.

"It's not over until you tell me mathematically that we can't do it," Zipadelli said.

No one had to tell him that it will be soon if they don't stop running into Menard.