Allmendinger blasts 'idiot' Tracy
AJ Allmendinger lashed out at Paul Tracy for what he regarded as dirty driving tactics by the former champion in Mexico City
Allmendinger was incensed at a blatant piece of blocking by Tracy shortly before the halfway mark in Sunday's season finale.
The Canadian had fallen to the back of the field following a first-lap puncture, but a well timed full-course yellow returned him to the thick of the action prior to the restart on lap 27.
Having lost the lead to Justin Wilson while recovering from a scuffle with another car, Tracy was in no mood to concede a further place to Allmendinger, who was drawing alongside him on the left, and he attempted to intimidate the youngster by squeezing him towards the grass.
Tracy has been something of a mentor to Allmendinger ever since he talent-spotted the precocious Californian and recruited him to his karting team several years ago.
But that didn't prevent Allmendinger from complaining bitterly about Tracy's on-track etiquette upon climbing out of the car on Sunday afternoon.
"PT's an idiot. I hate to agree with Sebastien [Bourdais] on anything but I have to agree with him on this one," Allmendinger told US broadcaster SPEED Channel.
"He's the dirtiest driver out there. He messed up, ran into Rodolfo [Lavin] and just drove me straight into the grass to hold me off.
"I don't know if that did anything to my race or if I could have got Justin, but from there on I just had to run too hard to catch him."
For his part, Tracy pleaded guilty as charged and did his best to defuse the situation.
"He probably has the right to be angry - I blocked him pretty hard," Tracy admitted. "It was a shame what happened because I was faster than Rodolfo and I was catching him by two seconds a lap.
"I got by him at this restart and then he dive-bombed me, we touched, he got a flat [tyre] and it screwed my exit up. AJ was coming and I just said, 'I'm not letting him go by'.
"I mean, I blocked him hard so I probably deserved the penalty."
Tracy is known for his mercurial temperament and later conceded that he had allowed his judgement to be clouded in the heat of the moment.
Speaking in the post-race media conference, he said: "I threw a huge block on AJ to keep him behind me. It probably wasn't the nicest thing to do, but I was pretty desperate to keep that position and ultimately had to pay for it by having to drive through the pits.
"My fault really. It wasn't the nicest thing to do, but seemed like the right thing to do at the time."
Allmendinger and Tracy survived their altercation to finish second and third respectively, ensuring that 'PT' shaded AJ for fourth place in the championship standings.
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