Tony Stewart talks NASCAR fight between Clint Bowyer and Ryan Newman

Tony Stewart on Clint Bowyer’s fight: “That kid has to take his helmet off if he’s gonna fight.”

Clint Bowyer and Ryan Newman got into it a little during and after the NASCAR All-Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The contact during the race was remembered after the race.

Newman hit Bowyer on the cool down lap. Bowyer than doored him back. Newman gave him another tap then Bowyer cut across his nose and unfortunately put himself in the outside wall.

When Bowyer parked his wrecked car on the pit lane, he climbed from the mangled machine in a hurry, leaving his helmet on. He then ran over to Newman’s car and began throwing rapid fire punches as Newman sat in his car.

Crew members and officials separated the two drivers in a hurry. Newman then walked back to Bowyer’s car where they talked things out a bit. The whole time, Bowyer’s helmet remained on.

The co-owner of the #14 NASCAR machine, Tony Stewart just became one of the 2020 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees. Over the course of his NASCAR career, Tony Stewart won many races and two series championship.

He also had a long list of altercations with many of his on-track competitors. A bulk of those remain on the highlight reels today. Though, there’s also rumors of an altercation with a certain NASCAR executive, a fight which has never been confirmed.

But, he’s anything but done racing. Now, Stewart is up and down the road with his dirt sprint car team. He has 100 races on the schedule for 2019.

Tony Stewart on Clint Bowyer’s fight with Ryan Newman

Bob Pockrass: Is Bowyer in your Hall of Fame after the fight?

“No, Bowyer’s not even close to the Hall of Fame. That kids has to take his helmet off if he’s gonna fight,” Tony Stewart said of his driver’s fight with Ryan Newman.

“These kids leave their helmets on to fight. Men take their helmets off and they fight. If you’re gonna fight, fight.”

“I was actually racing at a track in Ohio. We have a TV monitor in the back of our trailer so we can watch what’s going on while we’re working on the car.”

“I was buckling in for my main event and saw the finish of the [All-Star] race. I had no idea what had happened with Clint.”

“We go win the race, get done, sign autographs and get in the trailer. Where we were at was a virtual black hole of cell signal.”

“I got five miles down the road and all the sudden I’m getting all these texts. I’m thinking, ‘How do these people know we won that fast?’ “

“And, it wasn’t about us, it was about Clint’s deal. I got another five miles down the road and had a real signal.”

Clint Bowyer fights Ryan Newman after NASCAR race at Charlotte

Tony Stewart texted Clint Bowyer after the fight

“I had no idea that him and Newman had some kind of altercation during the race.”

Once the cell service was in place, Tony Stewart went to Twitter where he saw the same videos all of us saw.

“The first thing I did was text Clint. I said, ‘Take your helmet off if you’re going to get in a fight for Pete’s sake.’ “

“He said, ‘I didn’t have time.’ “

“But, the second text I sent him, I said, ‘Don’t lose that passion to fight for what you believe in.’ “

Ryan Newman and CLint Bowyer sign autographs at Bass Pro Shops — Ryan Newman and Clint Bowyer sign autographs at Bass Pro Shops (Photo: Zack Albert | NASCAR Digital Media)

Clint Bowyer and Ryan Newman sat in on an autograph session together

To cap this whole story off…

A week after the on track altercation, Newman and Bowyer were signed up for the same autograph session at Bass Pro Shops. This session was already in place before that incident at Charlotte.

Tony Stewart was aware of this session before it happened. He thought about going, “And, I’m actually in town, I might show up to see what I can get signed from these guys. It will be interesting to see if they’re at the same table or different tables. If they’re looking at each other or won’t speak to each other.”

Initially, Bass Pro Shops setup two tables, one for each driver. In the beginning of the session, Clint Bowyer picked up his cards and transferred himself to Newman’s table.

“Come on buddy,” Newman said as beat on the spot next to himself as Clint Bowyer walked over.

Watch a short clip from the Clint Bowyer, Ryan Newman autograph session below.

They had two tables here at Bass Pro Shops and Clint Bowyer brought his hero cars over and sat down right next to Newman. #nascar ⁦@NASCARONFOX⁩ pic.twitter.com/brzDDES348
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) May 23, 2019