Tempers erupt as Jeff Gordon wrecks Clint Bowyer

• Jeff Gordon retaliates on track, wrecks Clint Bowyer in race's closing laps
• Pit crews get into fight as Gordon tries to get to hauler, Bowyer follows suit
• Gordon: 'I've just had it'

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Jeff Gordon was fed up with Clint Bowyer and decided the final laps of Sunday's race at Phoenix International Raceway was a good time to take out his frustration.

Gordon intentionally wrecked Bowyer's No. 15 Toyota late in the AdvoCare 500, a move that ruined both cars and led to a melee between the teams in the garage and Bowyer to say that Gordon's action "makes us look like a bunch of (idiots)."

NASCAR met with both drivers after Sunday's race in a Sprint Cup Series hauler guarded by five sheriff's officers at one point. Any penalties will be announced later this week.

"It's just things have gotten escalated over the year, and I've just had it," Gordon said after meeting with NASCAR officials. "Clint's run into me numerous times, wrecked me, and he got into me on the back straightaway and pretty much ruined our day. I've had it and was fed up with it and got him back."

After the incident, Gordon drove his car back to the garage. A member from Bowyer's team went after Gordon, and a skirmish ensued between the teams. Bowyer parked his car on pit road and could see the fight on a giant video board behind his pit stall. He climbed out of his car and sprinted to the garage, running to Gordon's hauler before he was physically restrained a few feet from the door by a NASCAR official and others.

"The crew thing is between Jeff and Clint and not those team members," said Alan Gustafson, Gordon's crew chief. "My instructions to the guys was just, 'Don't let anybody get to Jeff.' And that's what that's about. We're going to protect him and stand behind him at all costs. Those guys obviously have tempers running high as are ours, and that's what happens."

Gordon's action Sunday cost Bowyer what slim chances he had of a championship. Bowyer entered Sunday's race 29 points out of the lead. He finished 28th and was eliminated from title contention Sunday.

"For him to act like that, I barely touched him and then I feel him get into Turn 3 and try to turn me and he missed," Bowyer said after meeting with NASCAR officials. "Next thing I know, (spotter) Brett (Griffin) is telling me on the radio that he's waiting on me."

Asked if Gordon was due retaliation for Sunday's incident, Bowyer said: "We'll just have to see.

"That was my opportunity to try to get myself back in the championship hunt. When you're disrupting a championship run like that, it's too bad. They ask us not to do that in the drivers' meeting, and there's usually a lot of respect there."

Asked if he saw anything on or off the track that might merit suspension to either drivers or crew members, Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition said: "It's Sunday night. The best decisions are made sometime after Sunday night, maybe Monday or Tuesday."

"It's pretty embarrassing for a four-time champion and what I consider one of the best the sport's ever seen to act like that, it's completely ridiculous," Bowyer said.

One of the most notable encounters between the two was at Martinsville in the spring when Bowyer's move on a late restart spun Gordon out of the lead and cost him a chance at the win.

When the four-time champion came out of NASCAR's hauler Sunday, he was asked if he was concerned about any penalties NASCAR might levy for him getting into Bowyer.

''They've got to do what they've got to do and I've got to do what I've got to do," Gordon replied.

There was outcry on social media and along pit road. Brad Keselowski, who took over the Chase for the Sprint Cup points lead by 20 with a sixth-place finish, was furious that drivers who had called him out for racing too hard at Texas Motor Speedway — where he and Jimmie Johnson banged and bumped their way to a 1-2 finish — were guilty of worse on Sunday.

"There's a difference between racing hard and what we saw today ... that was borderline ridiculous," Keselowski said in a post-race television interview. "I felt very lucky to make it through today."

Joey Logano, who finished 27th, tweeted: When I was young I thought @JeffGordonWeb was the best driver. Now I've lost a lot of respect for him. #verydumb

Michael Waltrip, who owns Bowyer's car, said: ''It's just ridiculous that a champion would behave like that. He waits around and totals our car and hopes for a championship. Cowardly. Chicken and sad that someone who has won championships before and knows the importance of racing. What a sad act that was by Jeff Gordon."

Denny Hamlin tweeted that 'The 24 should be parked!' for the series' season finale, at Homestead-Miami Speedway next Sunday.