Stewart backs down after meeting

Stewart hit out at the ruling body for calling what he alleged was an unnecessary caution period for debris on-track during last weekend's Phoenix race.

"It's hard to feel proud about being a driver in the NASCAR Nextel Cup series when they're throwing debris cautions," said Stewart during his NASCAR Sirius Satellite radio programme on Tuesday.

"It's like playing God. I guess NASCAR thinks, 'hey wrestling worked, and it was for the most part staged, so I guess it's going to work in racing, too.'"

Stewart also failed to appear at the post-race press conference at Phoenix, where he had finished second.

But after speaking to NASCAR officials this morning, Stewart altered his stance.

"They assured me that debris caution aren't things that aren't out there,"  Stewart said at Talladega during a press conference.

"They say they are things that are there and to be honest the group that I spoke to this morning is a group of peers that I trust.

"If they tell me that the stuff is out there then I believe them. It's hard sometimes when you don't see it and there's a lot of times that we don't and I question that."

The Joe Gibbs driver also explained he did not attend the post-race press conference in the media centre last week at Phoenix because he was furious about the caution flags and didn't want to speak against NASCAR.

"My frustration was the caution flags in the first half of the race," he added.

"We try to learn from our mistakes before and I've been to the media centre and been furious before and said things that I didn't want to say.

"And Tuesday night I was sick and still ended up saying things that I didn't want to say, or shouldn't have said and got in trouble for it."