Day 3 of the NASCAR feud between two of NASCAR’s superstars and it looks like there is no end in site.
Following Sunday’s Camping World RV Sales 301 from New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch was approached on pit road by someone with ESPN who asked him about his second-place performance and that of his older brother, Kurt, who had the best car on the track before an incident with Newman ruined his day.
Kyle Busch praised his brother and his team, but then went on take some jabs at Newman:
“I really hated that Kurt got tore up,” said Kyle Busch after the race. “I felt like he had the best car. I was proud of them guys but, man, (it was) just stupidity. Ryan Newman’s the biggest stupid idiot out here,” continued Busch. “He’s a big ogre and can do whatever he wants, because he can probably kick anybody’s butt. (There’s) no sense in getting in a fight with him, but I’m glad he’s out of a job.”
The “out of a job” part was a jab at last Friday’s announcement that Newman will not be brought back for next season with Stewart Haas Racing.
Since Sunday afternoon’s race ended, both drivers have gone back and forth on social media and other media outlets.
It all started on Monday with Ryan Newman’s weekly segment on SiriusXM Radio’s NASCAR channel.
“I’m just afraid if I re-arranged his face I might fix it,” Newman said. “He’s frustrated finishing third or wherever he was after hitting me first and then getting a little rub down the straightaway. Just imagine how I feel. It is what it is.”
Following the call-in show, Kyle Busch went right into damage control with a series of Twitter posts on Tuesday afternoon.
Busch’s full post on TwitLonger:
I want to clarify that I was answering what I felt was two separate questions asked to me at the same time in an interview following the race in Loudon. The first was about how fast Kurt was and the second was how I felt about Ryan Newman blaming me for him getting wrecked.
First I answered the Kurt part. He was fast… Great to see them running well… Was a shame to see him crashed… Nowhere there did I place blame on who wrecked who. I didn’t see it and I still haven’t seen it.
My second answer came from being upset over an incident I had with RN on the track during the race. I answered it in the same response, but it was intended as a completely separate answer.
I was upset because I felt RN raced me poorly, making contact and causing damage to my RF fender that affected the handling on my racecar. This isn’t the first time that I’ve been raced poorly by RN either, which added to my frustration. All this built up and allowed my emotions to spill over for how I felt. I’m not sorry for how I feel in those moments, but could have expressed it better and certainly my comments about someone’s livelihood went too far.”
Newman’s comments on Monday also included this warning:
“If he’s going to run his mouth, he better be able to back up running his mouth.”
Too bad we have an off weekend! Something tells me the Brickyard in two weeks is going to be interesting between these two.
