After incidents, Tony Stewart would get mad and break things; Joe Gibbs recalls
Joe Gibbs and Tony Stewart locked out the Championship 4 this year at Homestead-Miami Speedway. That put them on the stage together which sparked some memories.
One time, Denny Hamlin went rogue in a drafting session at Daytona International Speedway. While on his own plan for practice, he crashed the car.
That really upset his team owner, Joe Gibbs. The owner of the No. 11 told the driver he would be paying to fix the car.
Then, Hamlin won the race.
Joe Gibbs on telling Denny Hamlin to pay to fix the car
“I was upset with what happened. Then, he turned around an won that next race,” Joe Gibbs recalled.
“I said, ‘Ok, you can forget that. I don’t think I’ve ever penalized anybody for anything. But, I threaten them every now and then.”
Tony Stewart jumps in…
As mentioned, Tony Stewart was on stage with Joe Gibbs during this story. Between 1999-2008, Stewart piloted the No. 20 for Tony Stewart.
He won two NASCAR Cup Series championships with JGR. But, it wasn’t always rosy with the kid from Indiana.
Tony Stewart jumps in: “That’s not true.”
Joe Gibbs: “On second thought. There is a driver that I worked with…”
TS: “I had to pay for two tv’s in the lounge of the trailer that I broke.”
JG: “I used to try to get to the hauler as fast as I could, if he had a bad night. Cause he was going to tear up the inside of the hauler.”
TS: “I feel like I got pretty good odds out of it. I think I broke 5 tv’s before he said, ‘If you break another one, this one’s coming out of your paycheck.’ “
JG: “Hey listen, I got in there at Richmond one time. I beat him in there. He’s sitting there all flustered. He turned to me after tearing stuff up and said, ‘I outta go out there and kick his ass.’ “
As he gestures a door opening motion, “I go, ‘Ok, I think you should.’ I was hoping somebody would put a lump on ya.”
TS: “As a good owner, you would have thought about that first and I would have saved the trailer.”
Links
Tony Stewart discusses embarrassing NASCAR fights
Stewart, Dale Jr on cheating in racing
Tony Stewart punches nagging dirt racing fan after race (Video)
Stewart comments on the future of NASCAR
Links
Tony Stewart | Stewart-Haas Racing | Tony Stewart Racing | Denny Hamlin | Joe Gibbs Racing | NASCAR
