Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon were closing in on what looked to be solid finishes in Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
But as the final lap wound down and Elliott Sadler was clinching his first Winston Cup victory, sparks started flying behind him.
Gordon had been working Stewart from behind for the fourth-place position for several laps, but entering Turn 3 on the last lap, he slid all the way down to the apron to try to get past Stewart. As Gordon tried to pass, he and Stewart collided and Stewart spun out.
Gordon was able to hang on and finish fourth. Stewart ended up 25th.
But it wasn't over. On the cool-down lap, Stewart came back around to the frontstretch and hit Gordon's car. The drivers, their crew chiefs and team owners were all called to the NASCAR hauler following the race to discuss the incident.
Kevin Triplett, NASCAR's director of operations, said penalties may be forthcoming.
"It's just racing. It's just Bristol. It's part of the deal," said Stewart. "The reason we ended up in the (NASCAR) trailer is because I spun him on the pit lane and that was wrong. I could have hurt somebody, in all reality.
"I've got no hard feelings against Jeff and I don't think he has any against me. We're both aggressive and we both want to win and we both want to get every spot we can get every time we're on the race track."
Gordon said the accident was a result of "racing hard."
"I guess Tony didn't realize I was underneath him down the back straightaway, because it's pretty obvious to me," he said. "I got a heck of a run and he slipped up coming off of (Turn) 2. I had my nose in there, and I guess somebody didn't tell him I was there because it was pretty obvious. I did everything I could to keep from hitting him.
"I don't want to come to the last lap like that, but you've got a position and you've been working on it for a long time, you're going to do it and your going to take everything you can all the way to the end," Gordon said. "I thought that it was pretty clean."
Asked what he thought about Stewart's retaliation, Gordon said: "That didn't surprise me one bit."
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