Edwards slams Stewart's behaviour

Stewart was racing hard with Clint Bowyer on the 33rd of the race's 200 laps, when Stewart became angry with Bowyer because he felt the Richard Childress Racing rookie had pressed him too far towards the wall on the exit of Turn 3.

Stewart waved his fist out of the window of his Chevrolet Monte Carlo, before simply turning left and driving into Bowyer and sending him into a spin, which collected Chase contender Edwards.

Edwards' car was severely damaged in the incident and went a lap down while repairs were made to his Ford Fusion.

NASCAR officials penalised Stewart a lap for aggressive driving in the incident only for Edwards to deliver his own brand of karma 33 laps later, when he intentionally spun Stewart round on the entry to pitlane.

Edwards, 26, apologised for his actions after the race, but lashed out at Stewart's behaviour in the earlier altercation.

"I've got to choose my words carefully," Edwards said. "Let me just say this, if it weren't for respect of the sport and the people watching, he'd be out there bleeding right now.

"How can a person make it this far in life being that much of a jerk? He ran into Clint [Bowyer].  I saw it on the big screen. He turned into Clint and took both him and I out and probably made it just about impossible for us to make the Chase, and then when I pull up beside him and wave my hand like, 'What was that about?'  He gives me the finger.

"I mean, what a jerk. I want to like Tony. He's a hard racer and all that, but how can you like somebody like that? If you hold that guy up, like if he thinks you held him up, he gets so upset and then he can wreck two guys and give you the finger.  That's spectacularly self-centered.  I can't imagine being like that."

Stewart, 35, blamed the fact that some of the younger drivers have yet to learn how to race fairly against their peers, and said they need to race with a more open mindset, allowing for both 'give and take' in racing.

"We get some of these young guys," Stewart said. " They came from Martinsville yesterday and they come here to Pocono today and they're still racing like they're at Martinsville in the Busch Series. This is the Nextel Cup Series.

"If they would all learn a little give and take, none of us would have been in this position. Four cars ended up with a bad day because one guy couldn't have patience and use give and take like they talk about at the drivers meeting every week."

"I mean I didn't have any problems with [older drivers] Jeff Burton or Bobby Labonte or any of the rest of the guys all day who have been here doing it a while.

"All of a sudden these that are one and two year drivers that think they know everything about Cup racing. They've got a lot to learn."

Bowyer left Pocono refusing to comment on the incident, however Stewart believes that the sport misses the experience of Dale Earnhardt Sr. in such situations.

"Should I have been more patient? I don't think so," Stewart added. "If the No. 3 car was here, I don't think we'd have as many problems in the series as we have because he always had a way of letting the drivers know where they stood and when to be patient and when to move and when not to move.

"So I'm not saying that everybody's got to get out of everybody's way, but when it's a 500-mile race and they guy behind you comes up faster.

"But the problem is they're in good race cars and they run up front, but they don't run up front enough to learn from the rest of the veterans to learn how to race up front.

"If Clint (Bowyer) was faster than me, I'd have let him go. That's the way I do everybody. But is it fair for me to let him go but then not let me go coming up there. I just want to be raced.

"I expect to be raced the way I race other people. And I think I'm pretty fair. Ask some veterans and ask the guys that I run up front with every week and I think I'm a pretty fair driver to those guys. If I'm wrong on that, I'll quit."