The fireworks at Martinsville didn’t end with the checkered flag.
Brian Vickers, Kevin Harvick and Danica Patrick were racing hard for 11th, 12th and 13th off the final corner, and there was no dearth of contact between their cars.
Ultimately, Vickers got to the stripe first, followed by Patrick and Harvick. As the cars sped toward Turn 1 after the checkers, Harvick gave Vickers Toyota a shot and sent it spinning. The accident left Vickers mystified.
“We hadn’t really raced that much all day, and then he (Harvick) just wrecked us after the checkered flag,” Vickers said. “It was blatant, pretty blatant — he just turned right into us. The 10 (Patrick) and I were racing pretty hard. I got to her and got under her several times, and she ran me down in the marbles, ran me across the curb, was blocking pretty bad. So I put the bumper to her a little bit.
“If you’re going to block, if you’re going to run me across the curb, then you have to get the same in return. We raced hard all day, and we raced clean with a lot of people. I would say I did the same with Danica. I didn’t try to wreck her, (but) if you’re going to run me through the marbles, then what am I going to do?”
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