Denny Hamlin Wins, Fireworks at NASCAR's Regular Season End

By ESPN

It was yet another Denny Hamlin runaway for Joe Gibbs Racing on Saturday night in what turned out to be an anticlimactic end to NASCAR's regular season.

The fireworks came off the track at Richmond International Raceway, where Tony Stewart intentionally wrecked Ryan Newman before Newman angrily chided his former boss for the accident that officially ended Newman's chances to make the playoffs.

The verbal beat down from Newman came with 37 laps left, before Hamlin finished off his third career Sprint Cup win at his home track while giving JGR its third consecutive victory at the track and ninth in the last 15 races.

Newman called Stewart "bipolar," said the retiring race car driver had anger issues, and all but outright referenced the 2014 incident in which Stewart fatally struck a sprint car driver.

"I guess he thought he was in a sprint car again and didn't know how to control his anger," Newman said after the two made contact three times before finally wrecking. Dylan Lupton couldn't avoid the accident and his car ended up wedged between the wall and on top of Newman's car when the crashing finally ceased.

Stewart admitted to wrecking Newman.

"He's right, that was the third time he had driven into me. How many times is he supposed to hit you before you say, 'I've had enough of it?'" Stewart said.

The wreckage caused a stoppage of just over 20 minutes and sent Newman's temperature soaring. Newman's team was penalized 15 points this week by NASCAR for failing post-race inspection at Darlington, and the punishment made his task of trying to race his way into the Chase extremely difficult.

But few expected him to be so harsh toward Stewart, who employed Newman for five years until Newman was let go from Stewart-Haas Racing at the end of the 2013 season.

"Just disappointing that you have somebody old like that that should be retired the way he drives. It's just ridiculous," Newman said. "I don't think there was any reason other than him just being bipolar and having anger issues. Google Tony Stewart, you'll see all kinds of things he's done. Look it up on YouTube, everything else. Quite the guy."