Ricky Stenhouse Jr. talks Danica, Stewart, media

Jeff Gluck | USA TODAY Sports

DOVER, Del. -- It has been an interesting week for Ricky Stenhouse Jr., the low-key Sprint Cup Series driver who continually finds himself in the spotlight -- but not for leading the rookie standings.

Since Sunday's Coca-Cola 600, Stenhouse has been publicly chastised by three-time champion Tony Stewart, has had to manage the awkwardness of a crash involving girlfriend and fellow rookie Danica Patrick and appeared on non-racing websites such as E! News and US Weekly as a result.

Regarding his role in Patrick's crash, Stenhouse disagreed with assessments that he "wrecked" Patrick but added, "Y'all can write whatever you want to." His car "slipped" at the same time defending series champion Brad Keselowski was coming down the track, he said.

"I did have involvement in it being three-wide, so (I) definitely should have let those two go race for the lucky dog and try to get our car sorted out and run a little bit better," he said.

Stenhouse said he let Patrick "cool down a little bit" on the car ride home but said "it was a little more awkward with her because you never want to be in that situation." The two were fine soon afterward and spent Memorial Day together on Lake Norman.

"From the first time I've ever had to call a driver because I crashed him, it's always an awkward feeling," he said. "So, yeah, we're riding home and we got all the talking out before we got home and it was good to go."

On the topic of Stewart -- who said he wanted to "choke" Stenhouse for the way he blocked the veteran driver -- Stenhouse said the two talked afterward and the rookie got "some advice about racing."

"I didn't really block him, I just kind of held him up, he said," Stenhouse said. "When I saw his comments, I was like, 'Blocking? I don't remember blocking him. I remember holding him up a little bit.'

"He brought up a good point to me: When we run side by side, we're both losing time to the leader and the leader is catching us – something I really didn't think about. So early on in the race, definitely (that applies). When it's time to go race, you've still got to drive hard and give the car all it can take."

Stenhouse, still new to the spotlight, said the media outlets that write stories about Stewart's comments and the Patrick incident are partially to blame for the national exposure.

"I think y'all write it first, so they get it from y'all," Stenhouse said. "I think if y'all were to write positive things about the sport, then hopefully (outside outlets) would pick up on the positive. I think the media writes a lot of negativity because that's what people click on, that's what people read. The fans probably outside of our sport want to read it more, I think.

"I think it would be nice if the stuff coming out of our garage area and our media center is stuff about the good things about our sport instead of things like that. Us Weekly and E! News and things like that, that's their job, that's what they report on. So I don't really care if they pick it up or not."

Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck