Stewart, Newman meet with NASCAR at Chicagoland – Nascar

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JOLIET, Ill. — Sprint Cup Series drivers Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman, involved in a multicar accident a week ago at Richmond International Raceway, met briefly with NASCAR officials Friday here at Chicagoland Speedway.
 
“We don’t have to apologize (to each other),” Newman told members of the media following the meeting.
 
“You have to remember, we’ve been teammates, we’ve known each other since long before either one of us got an opportunity to come to NASCAR,” said Stewart, a three-time series champion.
 
“I’ll text you an apology,” Newman offered.
 
The accident in Saturday night’s race at RIR effectively ended any hopes Newman had of qualifying for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, which gets underway this weekend with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 (Sunday, 2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
 
Stewart, scheduled to retire from Sprint Cup competition at season’s end, is one of the 16 drivers who will be competing in the 10-race playoff for the series title. He is co-owner of the four-team Stewart-Haas Racing group as well as the driver of the No. 14 Chevrolet.
 
Newman drove for SHR from 2009-13, winning four times.
 
At Richmond, Newman took Stewart to task after the incident, saying it was “just disappointing that you have somebody old like that that should be retired the way he drives. It’s just ridiculous.”
 
Eight cars were collected in the crash, which occurred on Lap 363 of the scheduled 400-lap race; the race was red-flagged for more than 20 minutes. There were no injuries.
 
Newman said the incident won’t change the way he races his former teammate, or anyone else, on the track.
 
“I’ve never changed how I’ve raced anybody,” he said Friday. “If you look at it, I’m not the guy that goes out there and just intentionally takes somebody out. I don’t ever want to think that, much less do it. … I’m here to win and in order to do that I have to race.”
 
“This is the frustrating part for both of us,” Stewart, 45, said, “because we get poked and prodded about it and we’re ready to move on.
 
“It’s a deal where we’ve had a week to think about it, we’ve had a week to get over it; we’ve been in the (NASCAR) trailer and talked about it and as far as we’re concerned it’s over.”