Stewart's involvement at the time went largely unnoticed considering the fight that subsequently erupted in the garage area between Keselowski and Matt Kenseth. After his car was hit in a bottleneck at the entrance to pit road, Stewart put his car in reverse and drove it into the front of Keselowski's car, doing substantial damage.
Because of Stewart's involvement in a sprint car incident over the summer that resulted in the death of another driver, mainstream news media has been hammering on Stewart's involvement in this incident since.
Former NASCAR champion and Hall of Fame driver Darrell Waltrip was asked about Stewart being back in the national spotlight. Here was his response:
“For all kinds of reasons, it’s
unfortunate Stewart got dragged into this. Because of the incident in New York,
the media know who Stewart is, saw what happened and jumped to their own
conclusions and made judgments," he said. "That’s unfortunate because Stewart had nothing
to do with what happened on Saturday night."
