ELKHART LAKE, Wis. -- Tony Eury Jr. wasn't so much walking Road America's pit road as prowling it. Backpack slung over shoulder, notes binder wedged in the crook of his meaty arm, his eyes were slits under a cap brim, and they were tracing the movements of the man who had just crawled from a race car and ripped a balaclava from his sweaty shaved head. Their glares interlocked. They didn't actually touch, which was likely fortunate for both, but Danica Patrick's Nationwide Series crew chief leaned in close for emphasis.
Whether Jacques Villeneuve deciphered much of what Eury said in his North Carolina drawl amid the growl of passing race cars is unclear. All he really needed to discern was "a------'' and "why do you have to come here and run over people?"
Villeneuve, a former Formula One and Indianapolis 500 champion who moonlights in NASCAR road races, rebuffed Eury, his eyes widening, and stormed away. He returned to make another point but Eury, already walking away, ignored him.
Eury's grievance was simple: Patrick had raced hard and smart for almost the entire Nationwide race Saturday, led fleetingly if not officially, was battling to retain a fourth-place spot on the final lap, when Villeneuve made hard contact from behind to send her spinning into the gravel pit at Turn 5. Villeneuve, who led 10 laps before spinning off course midway through the race, finished sixth. Patrick finished 12th.
Eury, who has grown up with and worked for one of NASCAR's fabled families as nephew of the late Dale Earnhardt, said Villeneuve disgraces his own bloodlines, which include his late father, Gilles, and namesake uncle.
"With a name like that and the history his family has, and for him to come here and not have any respect for anybody, it's like he's not a real race car driver in my book because he doesn't have the respect for what his name should mean," he said.
