Ryan Newman should have been ecstatic Monday as he announced that he had signed with Richard Childress Racing for 2014.

Instead, he sounded emotionally drained from what happened Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway to cost him a spot in the Chase. He is even feeling the physical effects of the emotional letdown.

Not making the Chase for the Sprint Cup was bad enough. But dealing with the circumstances â€” Clint Bowyerâ€™s apparent intentional spin while Newman was leading with seven laps remaining â€” was devastating.

MORE: Pockrass: NASCAR must react to spin | Bowyer's response | Newman to RCR

Newman ended up having a slow pit stop, came out of the pits sixth and finished third, missing the Chase on a tiebreaker to Martin Truex Jr., Bowyerâ€™s teammate at Michael Waltrip Racing.

A win, or even a second-place finish, would have put Newman in the Chase.

â€œWhat happened to me Saturday night is the toughest thing Iâ€™ve ever gone through in any kind of racing in my 30 years of driving because of the way everything went down,â€ Newman said.

â€œAnd in hindsight, it hurt that much more. â€¦ Itâ€™s not an easy thing to work through, mentally, emotionally or even physically.â€

On Saturday night, Newman said he didnâ€™t know why Bowyer spun and said his pit crew didnâ€™t get the job done at the end.

He was more disturbed after seeing Bowyerâ€™s in-car video and hearing his in-car audio late Saturday night. He said it was â€œpretty obviousâ€ that Bowyer spun intentionally and he felt that Bowyerâ€™s team manipulated the race to get Truex into the Chase.

â€œI was extremely disappointed to see and hear some of the things that went down,â€ Newman said. â€œI think thatâ€™s relatively obvious to any fan or non-fan of our sport.

â€œIt kind of goes without saying what happened.â€

Newman did not offer an opinion on what penalties Bowyer should face as NASCAR reviews the incident. It is against NASCAR rules to intentionally bring out a caution flag and usually results in a driver being held on pit road.

NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton also told the drivers during their prerace meeting â€œyou guys keep it fair and square.â€

To Newman, Bowyerâ€™s spins wasnâ€™t fair and square. He said NASCAR should have been monitoring driverâ€™s radio frequencies, especially with the potential for teammates to cross the line with a Chase spot on the line.

â€œThis is something that is brought up every Richmondâ€™s drivers meeting,â€ Newman said. â€œYou know the quotes and you know what was said. And in the end, itâ€™s like we saw there was a potential for fire but nobody grabbed the extinguisher.â€

The Bowyer spin â€œchanged everything,â€ Newman said, and reiterated that his team could have performed better on pit road and controlled its own destiny. He said he â€œpretty much had to stress myself to sleepâ€ after the race.

â€œIn the end, how NASCAR handles this is extremely important for all of us.â€

Newman wasnâ€™t the only driver who was in position to make the Chase before the Bowyer spin. Jeff Gordon had a virtual lock on 10th place in the standings but Joey Logano was able to get his lap back after Bowyerâ€™s spin and pass two other drivers â€” including MWRâ€™s Brian Vickers, who pitted when the race went back to green.

As far as any future relationship with Bowyer and MWR, Newman said: â€œIâ€™d say the potential is not good for us to be cordial to each other.â€