Clash with the Orangemen

At least the No. 83 team won’t have to worry about Tony Stewart clipping one of its crew members in the pits this week. Today at Talladega, the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota drew the second pit stall, directly behind the No. 28 and ahead of the No. 99.

Stewart drives No. 20, the same car that gave gas man Doug Newell a ride at Kansas. Anyone glued to the tube Sunday saw, over and over via replays, Newell roll up onto the hood of Stewart’s car during a pit stop on lap 117. The team was taking out right-rear spring rubbers installed on an earlier stop, and an impatient Stewart, exiting from behind, just decided to go — gas man up ahead or not.

“About the time Brian started to go, (Stewart) started to go and before you knew it I was up on the hood of his car,” Newell said. “The worst part about it was that it rolled me up on my back. I felt like a turtle upside down. I couldn’t do anything, couldn’t grab a hold of anything.

“I was kind of thinking if you would just stop I can get off of here. My other thought was that I wanted to roll off on the driver’s side and empty rest of my gas can on his lap.”

Nothing like life on pit road.

Brian qualified ninth for Sunday’s Talladega 500 (186.707 mph), with No. 84 driver Mike Skinner rolling off 21st (186.065).