Punches Thrown Between Ryan Reed, Ryan Sieg After Pocono Crash
It all started with contact between Sieg and Reed coming out of Turn 1 early in the event. Sieg was racing on the outside of Reed before the No. 16 Ford ran high and forced the No. 39 machine into the outside wall.
“Went into Turn 1 and Ryan Reed – I should’ve been a little smarter than I was," a furious Sieg said. “You can’t race around the kid. He’s got a lot of money and he’s got a Roush car but he can’t drive it. Just an idiot. Everywhere he goes, it seems like he’s always in a wreck.
“Money can’t buy skill, obviously, with him. We had a really good car but it just sucks you get torn up here in the garage and have nothing to show for it from somebody that obviously can’t see or he’s brain-dead, can’t drive… probably all three."
Following the accident, a heated conversation turned physical in the garage area where punches were thrown. The crew of both teams got involved before the fight was broken up.
“There’s no talking to him," Sieg continued. “He thinks he does nothing wrong. He hasn’t figured it out yet. Still young, I guess. He kept jabbing off at his mouth and I figured I’d shut it up for him. And then all the crew guys jumped in on me. I couldn’t get a hold of him."
Reed, who later spun down the racetrack before getting pounded by Jeremy Clements in a lap 38 incident, called the Sieg contact a racing deal and claimed emotions simply ran high.
“It’s racing, so I look forward to talking about it in a calm, collected manner," Reed said. “We both race every week. It’s not going to do us any good to get out there and have a battle royale.
“At the end of the day, it’s going to take two parties here to agree, and I think we need to sit down and have a mature conversation. Words were said. Emotions were high. If he’s mad at me, I’ll listen. We can give each other room, or we can go out there and wreck each other."
Sieg said he was outnumbered as his low-budget No. 39 team has only a handful of members.
“We only had four against 20 [crewmen], so our odds were a little slim," Sieg said. “We only have about four or five people on the car, at the shop and here at the track. Just outnumbered."
“[The car] is not going to make it to Michigan. That’s the Michigan car so we’re going to have to thrash to get another one ready."
Reed, for his part failed to finish a race for the first time this year. He has not recorded a top-10 finish since winning the XFINITY race at Daytona in February of 2015. Both men are fighting for spots inside the 12-man XFINITY Series Chase that begins this fall. Zach Catanzareti/Frontstretch