Jeff Gordon Fight: NASCAR Brawl Sparks Debate (Photo courtesy YouTube)
NASCAR Driver Jeff Gordon Fights Clint Bowyer
NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon allowed his emotions to get the best of him when fellow driver Clint Bowyer’s car made contact and sent him crashing into the wall during Sunday’s championship race at the Phoenix International Raceway.
Because it wasn’t the first time that Bowyer’s action on the track caused Gordon’s car to be blackflagged, Gordon and his crew encountered Bowyer and his crew in the garage and a full-fledge fist fight ensued.
Almost two dozen men were tangled up together, screaming, pushing and shoving until security forces managed to separate everybody and have them leave the garage. Both men were required to explain their actions behind closed doors with NASCAR officials later that day while a security team stood guard at the front door.
No word yet if either Gordon or Bowyer will face fines or any suspension from racing in the future. Bowyer called the entire incident “embarrassing.”
One Youtube user wrote:
“I don’t know what to say. I don’t think what Jeff Gordon was right. However if your, for lack of a better term, bullied around sooner or later you have to stick up for yourself. We don’t see every detail that goes on the track. We don’t see every contact or hard racing some of these drivers may do (especially with ESPN’s coverage). If you watched Nascar you’d know they have history together. This wasn’t just done out of pure anger for one incident. It was a culmination of incidents.”
Another race fan says he would have done the same thing:
“I would have done the same thing. I’m so tired of this bullshit European pussified NASCAR. I loved the old NASCAR where men were allowed to be men and didn’t have to go sit down and talk things out they could just settle their own business. Gordon learned from Dale Earnhardt Sr so this is a natural outcome for someone who has been ******* with you all season.”
Both men have commented since the debacle. “It’s pretty embarrassing for a four-time champion and what I consider one of the best the sport’s ever seen to act like that,” says Bowyer. “When you disrupt a championship hunt like that, it’s too bad. They ask us not to do that at the drivers meeting and there’s usually a lot of respect there.”
Gordon seemed unapologetic, and is ready to face whatever punishment Nascar decides to dole out. “They’ve got to do what they’ve got to do just like I had to do what I had to do,” says Gordon.
