Stewart, Reutimann make up after in-race altercation

CONCORD, N.C. -- By the time he was making his way into the media center at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Monday after a series of seemingly endless rain delays stretched throughout two days, David Reutimann was feeling pretty great about himself for winning the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600.

A congratulatory phone call from Tony Stewart only made Reutimann feel even better about his first Cup win in 75 career starts.

Things get heated

Tony Stewart came over to have a conversation with David Reutimann during a rain delay and it got spirited when mechanic Dwayne Bigger joined the discussion.

• Watch video
• Final Laps: Coca-Cola 600
• Victory Lane: Reutimann
• Press Pass: Reutimann
• Race Rewind: Coca-Cola 600

A few hours earlier -- and yes, that's all it was even though by the end of the day it seemed more like a few months or years -- Stewart wasn't so happy with the way he thought Reutimann held him up as the two drivers battled for 10th position on Lap 112 of what was a scheduled 400-lap, 600-mile event.

"Go tell that ignorant [expletive] that this isn't the Nationwide Series and if he holds me up like that again, he'll beat the traffic on the way home," Stewart told his spotter over the radio. "I love him to death, but I'm not going to [expletive] with him like that again."

Reutimann tried to explain what had happened later.

"What you do in a situation where you have a very long race and a guy runs you down from half a straightaway away, at that point it doesn't really pay off for anyone to race one another," Reutimann said. "Generally, kind of the unwritten rule that everybody does is that you motion the other guy by so you don't hold anybody up. It doesn't make any sense to race a guy hard at that point in the race.

"And I think Tony felt like I raced him a little harder than I should have. That's all it was. Tony and I are cool. He gave me a phone call on the way in [to the media center]. Tony Stewart in many ways is one of the guys who has helped me out the most -- because there have been many, many times when I've gotten in his way, especially during my rookie [Cup] year, and he never came down and chewed me out or got all over me or anything like that. He always tried to help me.

"This was just another situation where he was trying to help me out. We didn't see eye-to-eye on it, but I think Tony is one of the best guys out there and he's one of my heroes. That's what bothered me so much -- you don't want your hero to be mad at you." (Continued)