Tony Stewart appears to intentionally crash another driver during Darlington NASCAR race

Tony Stewart appeared to deliberately cause Brian Scott to crash during Sunday night’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

Scott was four laps behind the lead and just ahead of Stewart when he bobbled and drifted up the track and into the path of Stewart, who was running on the same lap as leaders at the time of the incident. Stewart had to slow to avoid hitting the rookie, then veered directly into Scott’s rear quarter-panel, which turned him into the inside wall. Scott was uninjured.

“I was trying to let Tony go there and I think he got inside of me and got loose there,” Scott said. “I was pointing him to the inside to let him go. Apparently he got mad at me.

“I have a lot of respect for Tony. He has always raced me really clean. I am not sure what he thought was going on there. I am not sure if he thought I was trying to hold him up there, I wasn’t. I was trying to let him go. I even pointed him to the inside. Maybe he thought I was giving him the finger or something. I will talk with him. We will figure it out.”

NASCAR did not penalize Stewart, but did request the three-time Sprint Cup champion and his crew chief Mike Bugarewicz meet with officials immediately following the race. After falling out of the race early due to a blown engine, Stewart denied intentionally crashing Scott.

“We were on old tires and sliding around,” Stewart said, via ESPN.com. “I got underneath him in [Turn] 2 and for some reason, he ran us through there [beside us] and I got really loose, and I was still getting it gathered up and got him in the left rear and wrecked him.”