Drivers meets with NASCAR officials
NASCAR officials did meet with Michael McDowell and David Gilliland to make sure there was no ill intent in the incident. NASCAR officials say the drivers will not be penalized for the accident, which started when McDowell hit Gilliland in Turn 11.
"They just kind of got into each other and neither one of them said it was anything more than just hard racing, both guys," NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton said following the meeting. "It was a shame that it had the outcome for so many cars that were right there behind them at the time. That's all we were checking, making sure it was hard racing. That we don't mind, but we don't like it when it takes out a lot of cars the way it did."
McDowell, a rookie with Michael Waltrip Racing, didn't accept blame for the crash but he did apologize for the impact it had. The incident sparked a 43-minute, 5-second red-flag period on lap 84 of the 90.
"I had a run and I went underneath him and he just didn't give me a whole lot of room," McDowell said. "Maybe I shouldn't have been in there, but we're racing hard to stay in the top 35 in owner points and try to get back into the top 35. … It's unfortunate and I'm sorry for the fans and all the cars that got wrecked there and then they had to wait through that red flag."
He said that he watched the video with Gilliland.
"Him and I were racing hard and I got underneath him going in there and he pretty much came down like I wasn't there," said McDowell, who remained outside of the top 35 following the race. "I tried to back out of it not to get into him. He went wide so I checked the momentum up and it almost seemed like he was trying to get back at me. After watching it, it looked like it was racing deal and it wasn't anything blatant. It just turned into a big mess with all the other cars that got into it. David's all right and everybody can walk away and I'm sorry to all the teams that have tore-up race cars. I was just racing hard and trying to get the car back in the top 35 and you're racing for your job every weekend."
Gilliland also deemed the incident "hard racing." He was unable to continue and finished 40th while McDowell was able to continue and finished 25th.
"[I] just hated that it ruined our day and a bunch of other innocent people's days," the Yates Racing driver said. "Our Ford was running pretty good, we had a good, solid, consistent day going and got into it there a little with the 00 car [of McDowell]. Too bad it ended our day early, but we'll come back and get them next week."
Gilliland said that in the meeting with NASCAR, McDowell said that he didn't know Gilliland's position on the track.
"He said he didn't really realize I was there on the outside of him and just kind of came up and kind of put us in the wall," Gilliland said. "So it's a disappointing ending to a decent day we had going, but we'll get them next week."