The video and the headlines from this week's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Richmond International Raceway screamed Marcos Ambrose punches Casey Mears.
"(My eye) is OK," Mears said. "He got me good, though. Out of all the NASCAR fights or punches or when you see people swinging, usually it's a lot of fly-swatting. He actually connected so that was pretty good." Not since Jeff Gordon shoved Jeff Burton at Texas Motor Speedway, in 2010, were two nicer guys involved in a fracas at a NASCAR Sprint Cup race track. After the race ended Mears, the nephew of four-time Indy 500 winner Rick Mears, was in a heated discussion with the affable Australian, Ambrose. Then it appeared that Mears shoved Ambrose, and, boom. Up till now content of the discussion has not been disseminated to the media, but, NASCAR.com caught up with Mears at a charity run in Charlotte on Monday. "Some things happened out on the track that we weren't real happy with, I guess both of us weren't right?" Mears told NASCAR's website. "We were talking and it turned into not talking at the end. "Things happen. He got me pretty good with that shot. Everybody gets mad after those races when everybody is trying so hard. It's a passionate sport, obviously. It's tough when you first get out of the car, when you don't have a good chance to cool off, it escalates pretty quick." While the North American media was a bit dumbfounded by the punched thrown by Ambrose which landed on Mears' right eye the Aussie media was having a field day. Greg Murphy, who almost came to blows with Ambrose after a wreck in a V8 Supercar race in 2005 spoke to an Australian website. "I didn't think he had it in him, but there you go, I'm wrong again," an amused Murphy told Speedcafe.com. "I've got to pay credit to that one. It looked like it was a pretty good hook! "Maybe he saw a picture of my head on Casey Mears' shoulders, who knows? "He obviously got a big shove from Casey for whatever reason that moved him aside and that was enough to get him riled up. "It was very entertaining!" Even NASCAR's most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr had a funny reaction on Twitter, "So, I went to Australia once. They don't take no crap. #Thunderstruck". Ambrose has not spoken publicly about the incident. NASCAR officials said that, as per usual, they would review all of the available video before determine any penalties for the fracas. They usually are announced on Tuesday afternoons.
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