Paul Menard had enough of how he was being raced by rookie Harrison Burton on Saturday in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway so he used the moment to teach the 18-year-old a lesson.
At least, that’s how the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series veteran viewed the ordeal. As is often the case, Burton saw it much differently.
Burton slid up into Menard, making door-to-door contact when making a pass in Turns 1 and 2 on Lap 137 of the 200-lap race. Burton completed another pass on Lap 153, but any contact wasn’t clear, but it was enough to prompt Menard came back several laps later to hook Burton in the left rear in Turns 1 and 2.
Menard made it clear on the radio immediately afterwards that the crash was intentional and confirmed as much to Autoweek after the race.
“He ran into me twice and I had enough of that, so I ran into him once,” Menard said.
Burton confronted Menard after the race. How did that go?
“He was mad that I ran into him that one time,” Menard added. “Yeah, I guess, it is what it is. He hit me into 1 and also 3 and I hit him back into 1. Some of these kids get it and some of these kids don’t and I feel like you have to cut that shit out at an early age.”
Burton was dumbfounded over the incident.
“I guess Paul got tired of me beating him so he just wrecked me,” he said. “There’s nothing more to it. He just wrecked me. It’s frustrating. I worked my butt off to be the best that I could be there at the end and then we just get wrecked for no reason.”
Was there anything Burton was willing to concede as a wrongdoing?
“The only thing I did wrong was that I got into his door a few laps before and then I passed him clean 10 laps after that,” he said. “That’s it.”
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