Auto Racing News

02:26 PM EDT on Wednesday, October 6, 2004

By JENNA FRYER / Associated Press

The moment the four-letter word slipped out of Dale Earnhardt's mouth, NASCAR knew it had a huge dilemma on its hands.

The precedent had already been set for punishing drivers who cursed during broadcast interviews -- a sizable fine, plus the deduction of championship points, which have a far greater value than any cash amount.

But docking points from Junior for using a vulgarity in Victory Lane last week at Talladega had severe implications: He'd drop from first to second in the points lead, giving up the top spot in the race for the Nextel Cup title.

Knocking Earnhardt out of the lead would guarantee a nasty backlash from the army of Earnhardt loyalists.

Not taking the points would be even worse, indicating favoritism to a driver many believe already gets preferential treatment from NASCAR.

In the end, it was not a difficult decision at all.

NASCAR took 25 points from Earnhardt and fined him $10,000 on Tuesday, a penalty that dropped him behind Kurt Busch for the points lead with seven events to go in the 10-race playoff system.

"It was really a no-brainer," said NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter. "Are we getting angry e-mails from fans? Of course. But when we announced the Chase for the Championship, everyone asked us how we were going to police it. The answer was `The same way we police everything else.'

"Just because he was the points leader, just because it changed his position in the standings, changed nothing. The rules are the rules and he broke them."

In upholding the law -- which, by the way, only went into effect in February when NASCAR president Mike Helton ordered all teams to quit cussing on TV and radio -- the sanctioning body created the possibility that the championship could be decided not on the race track, but off of it for a non-racing violation.

Busch, who now holds a 12-point lead over Earnhardt, is hoping it doesn't happen.

Earnhardt is overwhelmingly NASCAR's most popular driver. Busch, well, is not.

Busch has been booed in Victory Lane numerous times, and realizes that if Earnhardt loses the title by 25-points or less, the winner will be vilified.

"I want to go into the last race with a 155-point edge and that way we won't have to worry about anything," Busch said.

With seven races to go, anything can happen. Earnhardt could race his way back into the lead, or he could wreck his way out of contention.

"This is just a quick point difference that was 13 in his favor and now it's 12 in our favor, but we've got seven races to go," Busch said. "Hopefully, these 25 points won't come into the final factor because we want to beat him on the race track."

Earnhardt and his Dale Earnhardt Inc. team are appealing the penalty, but the three-person panel selected from the National Stock Car Racing Commission rarely ever overturns a NASCAR decision.

DEI certainly realizes its chances at having the points restored are slim, at best, but is arguing a much larger point.

"We're facing a setback from a competition standpoint for something that should be considered a personal foul," said Richie Gilmore, DEI's director of competition. "I think we're the only sport that takes points off of the board after they've been scored."

And that's where it gets murky.

NASCAR can, and should, take points for illegal parts, blatant cheating, even rough driving. All those offenses are racing-related.

But swearing? That's got nothing to do with competition.

What's next? Losing points for wearing an ugly firesuit?

Not quite, NASCAR says. But the sanctioning body defends its policy against swearing, pointing to its image as a family sport. And in dealing with drivers who make tons of money -- Earnhardt earned $4,923,500 last season -- fines just weren't getting the message across.

"We hadn't been able to find a monetary value that was effective in sending our message for violations we were finding," said Nextel Cup series director John Darby. "Taking points isn't something we're happy about doing. I've been lobbied very hard by crew chiefs to `Make the fines as high as you like but don't take our points.'

"It's a shame that it can effect the championship, but it's something we feel is working."

Don't count Earnhardt out just yet.

The field of 10 drivers racing for the title has more or less been cut in half.

Jeremy Mayfield is out of it, a wreck at Talladega knocking him 267 points behind the leader. Jimmie Johnson is in ninth place, a failed engine dropping him to ninth place, 159 points out.

Johnson can still climb out of his hole, and so can drivers Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, Elliott Sadler and Ryan Newman.

But for any of the bottom drivers to win the title, they'll need the front four to falter -- and soon.

Busch has shown no signs of doing so, becoming the only driver to score a top-five finish in all three of the Chase races. And the rest of the schedule fits him well: He won at three of the final five tracks on the schedule to end the 2002 season and has been preparing for a similar run with an aggressive testing schedule.

" We're making so many laps that we're trying to keep up with all of our notes," he said.