Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog

In case you missed it, Ryan Newman made a hard charge near the end of the Martinsville race and shoved Jeff Gordon out of the way to do it. I bet if he caught Jimmie he would have done the same too.

Do I object to this? No. Just because these guys, Gordon and Johnson, are racing for the Championship does not mean they should be treated any differently than the others on the track. It is a race after all, not two races on the same track, and everyone is fighting for a win or, for some, a ride or sponsor for next year as well as to stay in the top 35. The Chace drivers are not untouchables and should not be treated as such. They are just another car to pass on the track. Period.

Newman stated that he was not going to change his driving style for Chasers such as Gordon and Johnson.

“In my opinion I’m a championship driver and just because I had some bad luck this year doesn’t mean I should change the way I race for guys that are going for the Cup,” he said.

Apparently Gordon didn’t like being ‘roughed up’ a bit.

“I understand he said got in there too hot and made a mistake, but that mistake almost cost us the race. And so I was pretty upset about it, obviously. He was faster than me and he basically told me by his front bumper hitting my rear bumper down in the middle of [turns] 1 and 2 on one of those restarts. I basically had to give him the inside because I couldn’t afford to let him hit me any harder than that, and he was faster than me.” Jeff said.

There was no malice on Newman’s part. What happened was just racing. Like it or not.

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Robert LeSieur (UNITED STATES)