Excerpt from ESPN's David Newton interview with Billy Bad Butt:
"Stewart kept saying, 'Well, there's 42 other drivers out there that keep pointing the finger at the same guy every week.' David said, 'Tony, this is the first time we've had a conversation like this. I don't know what you're talking about.'
"If that was it nothing would have been said. But he just kept egging on, egging on, egging on. Finally, I just told him to leave."
Then the real fun began. This is Bad Butt's PG-rated version of what went down:
"After that he said until I start driving one of these cars and get out here racing with us that I could pipe in. He said the conversation right now is between your driver and me, and you don't need to be involved. I told him I was already involved.
"He acted like he was done after that. Then he came back and said some other stuff. I'm like, 'OK, when we pull up next to you and get up behind you I just want you to roll over and let us by.' He was like, 'I'll do that.' I pretty much called him out … [said] he wasn't going to do that.
"Then he walked off and came back for more. That's when I finally let him have it. The thing that fired him up was when I called him a prima donna driver … a Cup god. After that he threw out, 'I've got two championships and 33 wins, I'm a prima donna.' That's when I bowed down to him."
Yes, bowed. Bad Butt bent at the waist, bowed and actually kissed the ground, not out of respect and not without one eye on Stewart the entire time.
He just didn't appreciate what Stewart said on pit road.
"Remember the days of Earnhardt, Wallace, Martin … you never heard them say somebody was racing them too hard," Bad Butt said. "They either did something about it or just raced. That's what the people loved back then. That's where the sport's fallen back."
He has a point. Perhaps NASCAR should have included him in Tuesday's meeting of drivers and owners in which it sought ways to improve the sport.
"I don't know if it's good for the sport, but they need to bring the passion back and the loyalty," Bad Butt said. "You don't have that anymore."
He's right again. You don't see crewmen going to another pit stall and getting into fights like you did five years ago. They're too afraid of being fined or suspended.
Bad Butt didn't think twice about defending his driver, something Reutimann greatly appreciated.
"In the end, crew guys stick up for their drivers," Reutimann said. "At least if you've got a good crew, they do. I've had guys stick up for me even when they knew 100 percent I was wrong. They stood right beside me and made sure I didn't get beat up."
Bad Butt was ready to fight if necessary. And he looks much bigger than his 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds. Maybe it's the uniform. Maybe it's the bald head.
But he looked like he could have given Stewart a run for his money.
"It would have been a pretty good battle, probably," Bad Butt said. "I've been with my driver for seven or eight years. I'd seen him pushed around and knocked around enough, you get to a boiling point and you blow up.
"I respect Tony. The thing is he pretty much says what he wants to say and that's the kind of guy he is. That's the kind of guy I am, too. I don't hold back."
