NASCAR's Tony Stewart wanted to choke Danica Patrick's boyfriend, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., after the latter caused Patrick to wreck at the Coca-Cola 600. Patrick called it tough love and didn't take it too seriously, USA Today reports.
"Don't you want to choke your kids every now and again?" Patrick told reporters on Friday. "Everyone wants to choke their kids or their dad or their son or their significant other at times. I think that's a comment out of love, no doubt."
Stenhouse Jr. incurred Stewart's ire for trying to do too much blocking and not enough racing. Stenhouse caused Patrick to wreck during Sunday's NASCAR event when he accidently nudged into the side of her car. Patrick later said she was upset that Stenhouse made it three-wide when he could have backed out of the situation, which ultimately caused her to wreck with driver Brad Keselowski's car.
Patrick considers it a good omen for Stenhouse that Stewart, her boss, wants to choke him.
"If Tony is hard on rookies, I just thank the good Lord above that I'm on his team," she said. "He wants to help teach the rookies that he respects and feels should get that time of day. If there's anyone out there he says something about ... it's because he wants them to learn how to play the game."
She added: "They had a conversation about Sunday night. (Stewart) loves him like a son, so you'd never try and hurt your son, you'd only try and help your son. That's the moral of that story. You say (you'd choke someone) because you can't do it."
