[chefsos]

Several of Ryan Newman's crewmen confronted Kurt Busch on Saturday night at Darlington Raceway following an ill-advised decision by Busch to do a burnout through Newman's pit box.

After Busch had a flat tire and crashed with six laps remaining – an incident which also collected Newman – the Phoenix Racing driver lost his cool and began yelling on the team radio.

When Busch completed his pit stop to fix damage shortly after the wreck, he slammed his foot down on the throttle and did a loud, angry burnout while leaving his pit box. The burnout startled fans in the stands and put up a huge plume of smoke, an expression of Busch's frustration at a promising night gone bad.

But while doing the burnout, Busch drove through Newman's pit box as well – and several Newman crew members were still over the wall after recently completing service on the No. 39 car.

The crewmen were infuriated by Busch coming so close to them with his burnout, and several began yelling at Busch's crew to convey their outrage.

"When you come ripping through somebody's pit box like that, he could have took out five or six guys plus the officials pretty easy," Newman's crew chief Tony Gibson said. "I don't know how somebody didn't get run over, to be honest with you. It was a miracle nobody got hit."

Newman told SI.com's Dustin Long he suspected Busch's actions were due to a "chemical imbalance."

"It's easy to see and it's easy to say that Kurt blew a fuse again," Newman said. "I'm not sure why he did it and tried to run over our guys and NASCAR officials. And nobody is."

Among the angry crewmen was Newman's gas man, Andy Rueger, who went to the No. 51 hauler to await Busch's arrival. Rueger planned to confront Busch immediately after the race.

But Busch's team knew Newman's crew was upset, and so crew chief Nick Harrison instructed Busch to stop at the entrance of pit road and leave the car there instead. The driver was livid on the radio and had been screaming obscenities during the final few laps, and the team felt it would be a good idea for him just to get off the track.

Somehow, though, Busch then made contact with Newman's car on pit road. Busch contended he accidentally ran into Newman while taking off his helmet, but Newman told SI.com he thought Busch did it intentionally.

http://www.sbnation.com/nascar/2012/...an-newman-2012