Jimmie Johnson is still waiting on an apology from Ryan Blaney following last weekend’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen.
“We know what happened on the track … the drivers do,” Johnson told NASCAR.com. “There was a window of opportunity there from my standpoint for Ryan to handle it a certain way, to engage in at least the way that I know I have when it wasn’t on purpose and I have yet to see or hear from him. So, that only validates my line of thought and how angry I was in the car.”
The seven-time MENCS champion confronted Blaney following the conclusion of the race at Watkins Glen but the driver of the No. 12 Ford is still holding his ground a week later.
“I have nothing to apologize about,” Blaney said Friday morning at Michigan. “He came down on me. I apologized to him right then and there, even though it was his fault. I have a lot of respect for Jimmie — or had a lot of respect –that’s why I kind of let him chew my ass out for a minute, minute-and-a-half or whatever he did and I didn’t go back into him, especially when he put a finger in my face.
“Then his comments after we got done talking pretty much threw all that out the window. That respect is very little.”
Earlier his week Blaney made an attempt to acquire a vintage Johnson t-shirt to add to his collection but any thoughts of reaching out have passed.
I was there and he came down across me, then we talked about it after the race,” Blaney said. “You do that to yourself and then expect me to apologize for that? It’s not like I flat ran him over. I told him that. … It’s his doing, but he wants to be mad at me about it.”
“He wants to do what he wants to do,” Blaney said. “That’s a separate deal. I’m over it. I’m sure he’s still mad.”
Johnson is contending with Ryan Newman for the 16th spot in the NAACAR Playoffs.
“I’ve checked up for a lot of people and they chopped my nose off like that over the years,” Blaney said. “That’s just not happening anymore. If he wants to be pissed off and try to wreck us and take us out, it’s going to be a whole other problem.”
