"(Yeley’s) kind of a hero to me … Hate that it happened between me and JJ," Poole said in the garage area after he’d been taken off the track. "He’s a guy I looked up to a lot when I was racing quarter-midgets. … Just tough racing. Just a little bummed it happened between me and him. Just unfortunate. I really felt like we had a shot at it; we’ll never know now."
 
A few minutes later, Poole expanded on his comments and appeared to indicate that the second incident on Lap 151 — which put Yeley’s No. 28 into the wall, crunching the hood and ending the veteran driver’s day – was more than just rough racing.
 
It was retaliation.
 
"He just deliberately crashed me like five laps into the race when there’s 245 laps left. There’s no sense in that," Poole said before heading to the NASCAR hauler to speak with officials. "It costs us a lot of money to be out here. DC Solar is putting everything on the line to build a brand. I’m trying to make myself known in this sport so I can stay here and then one of my heroes just deliberately crashed me five laps into the race. Just doesn’t make sense.
 
"I feel like it’s pretty common sense to know that you’ve got 245 to go, like, ‘What are you doing?’ So we fixed the car, I got back to him and we just got into it. Just part of racing. Hate it happened between me and JJ but it’s just how it goes sometimes."
 
In these situations, the drivers involved rarely see it in the same light, and Sunday was no different.
 
Yeley was firm in saying that early on when the initial contact happened in the early stages of the race, his Toyota Camry just got loose off of Turn 2 and he "tried to tuck it behind him and just barely clipped him. Obviously nothing intentional. I’m not just going to wreck somebody on Lap 15. It’s just a stupid thing to do.
 
"Obviously he was upset and instead of just talking to us like a man after the race, he came back out there and took a good finish away from a guy with a small team," said Yeley, who finished 34th. "We don’t have a lot of cars and obviously he’s got no issue unloading another bullet for next week. Very furious. Hopefully NASCAR gets a hold of him before I do."

A NASCAR spokesperson said after the race Sunday that there would be no penalty to Poole for his actions Sunday.
 
In what was a very aggressive race overall, the Yeley/Poole incident still felt especially odd and out of place. The duo each said positive and negative things about each other.
 
"I don’t know (if that’s just racing). I’ve raced him pretty clean throughout the year," Yeley added. "I even congratulated him at Texas because we raced all night long together and had no issues. I thought he did a fantastic job. It’s racing, but sometimes you understand that stuff happens. And again, when it’s Lap 15 and we’re back in 20th, you have to understand that it’s nothing intentional. It’s very disappointing. I haven’t been in that situation in a very long time where someone wants to come get you.
 
"For a guy like that, as a rookie, to go out there and do that thing kind of … it sucks.

"The shoe will be on the other foot before too long."

With Roger Penske only fielding two full-time Cup entries for Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano in 2015, he loaned his developmental talent to the fellow Ford organization for roughly 18 starts to get his feet wet while future plans for the son of long-time Cup driver Dave Blaney get sorted out.

As of Sunday, there have been no conversations about adding a third Cup team for Penske next season.

"There hasn’t (been any talk about a third Penske team)," Blaney said after wheeling the No. 22 to a fifth-place finish in the 3M 250 XFINITY race at Iowa Speedway. "We’re working hard at doing what we can for the future, and that’s with whatever team, you know? Our main focus is trying to finish out this year strong with the Wood Brothers."

Talks about Blaney’s future have intensified after the 21-year-old started third and finished fourth at Talladega Superspeedway earlier this month.

An Associated Press report was published on Saturday in which Penske also confirmed that his organization isn’t currently interested in expanding to three cars, but that a full season with Blaney in the No. 21 Fusion is possible, provided that enough funding is secured. 

"I’d hope there can be an extension … we’re going to run him in about 18 races, so if we can get sponsorship for him, that gives him a chance to take a look at extending that through a full season next year. That would be our goal," Penske told the AP. "This is a partnership really with Woods’ people and ours … we’ve got the technology and the ability to build the right pieces for them. It’s like a brother-in-law." 

In the meantime, Blaney knows he can only control what happens on the race track, and his focus is on making the most of his time behind the respective wheels of both the Nos. 21 and 22.

"We’re excited to go to the (Coca-Cola) 600 next week. We’re really pumped about that," Blaney said. "After our good run at Talladega and we tested at Charlotte and I thought it went really well; just really excited to get back there and we’re always working to get towards the future. We can definitely have wishful thinking. 

"We really just focus on here and now," said Blaney. 

"I always say ‘You do your job here in the present and the stuff for the future will work itself out.’"