Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon were in the same place at the same time on New Year’s Eve, but that doesn’t mean there was a meeting of the minds between the feuding drivers.
After Thursday morning’s Preseason Thunder test session at Daytona International Speedway, Bowyer side-stepped questions about the status of lingering hard feelings stemming from last November’s crash at Phoenix, where Gordon freely acknowledged he wrecked Bowyer on purpose as payback for previous racing incidents.
Coincidentally, Bowyer and Gordon both vacationed in St. Bart’s in the Caribbean, and both attended a New Year’s Eve celebration on rapper Sean “P. Diddy” Combs’ yacht.
“I was on the damnedest boat you’ve ever seen in your life,” Bowyer said when asked if he had run into Gordon — figuratively — during the party. “I’m from Kansas. We don’t have big boats in Kansas. We don’t have very big bodies of water, so I think he was on that same boat, but there was a lot of other people on there, and there was a big time being had.
“Yes, he was on there, and I think it was on the same island. I’m pretty sure he was on there. It was pretty late — put it that way.”
Pressed as to whether he and Gordon had “bonded” during the vacation trip, Bowyer replied sarcastically, “Yeah, we held hands and walked on the boat and discussed the past year and enjoyed ourselves throughout the whole vacation.
“That was the one person that I definitely wanted to vacation with. I couldn’t wait to get there for that very reason.”
Asked how he and Bowyer ended up at the same party on the same boat, Gordon quipped, “The question is how he got on the yacht.”
Gordon was equally coy about whether anything had been resolved.
“It was just an amazing event that P. Diddy had,” said Gordon, who has been vacationing at St. Bart’s for the past few years. “We were just hanging out, having a good time, and on walks Bowyer and (Kevin) Harvick and a couple of other folks…
“We talked. We talked — and I had a great New Year’s.”
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