Auto Racing News

03:50 PM EDT on Wednesday, October 6, 2004

By CHUCK HOWARD / 6NEWS

The news out of Daytona Beach, FL on Tuesday certainly was not of the shocking variety. After NASCAR officials penalized Busch Series drivers Ron Hornaday and Johnny Sauter for using profanity earlier this year on live radio broadcasts it was pretty much a foregone conclusion what Junior’s fate would be. NASCAR had set the precedent with those 25 point, 10,000 dollar penalties and basically had backed themselves into a corner when it came to Junior’s slip of the tongue. Now granted, when it comes to NASCAR handing out penalties they have had a history of being somewhat inconsistent in their judicious actions but this time they had to penalize Earnhardt or face the cat-calls of possible favoritism towards their sports most popular driver.

But NASCAR, in an effort to be politically correct, has again made themselves look foolish in the eyes of not just the hard-core racing fans but perhaps in the eyes of those new fans they are so anxious to gobble up. No other sport’s sanctioning body would or will ever take away an on-field/court triumph for what basically amounts to a personal foul. I realize Junior may have offended some people with his use of the “s” word but the penalty does not meet the crime. And I also am aware that NASCAR and it’s broadcasting partners are under new scrutiny to not let bad words make it onto the air and that they did warn drivers about using profanity but to take away points for showing emotion is going to rip out the heart and soul of this sport unless the folks in Daytona come up with a different penalty come next season.

While NASCAR continues to try to be more and more like the N.F.L and other mainstream sports they continue to not do things like those sports especially when it comes to post-race interviews. A very simple remedy for possibly ensuring that profanity doesn’t make it onto the air is to simply have a cooling off period before drivers can speak to the media. In the NFL we can’t speak to players for at least 10 minutes following a game. It makes a great deal of sense. While we miss out on that immediate emotion following a game it does allow players a little time to collect their thoughts before they say what they may truly want to say. NASCAR is the only sport where microphones are crammed into a drivers face immediately after a crash or immediately after a thrilling victory. If I was a driver who just got crashed out of a race, I would simply not speak to the media until I’ve gone to my hauler, had a Gatorade, combed my hair and cooled off. And unfortunately we’re going to get more and more of the robotic type interviews we have become accustomed to in victory lane. Now, conversely, at the end of the day it is ultimately the drivers responsibility to watch what they say during interviews since they were indeed warned at the beginning of the season to watch their language. My beef here is with the type of penalty that NASCAR has decided to use in this situation.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m sure some of you were offended by Dale’s use of the “s” word but he was just showing pure emotion which is one of the traits that make the guy so likeable. Junior needed to be punished in some shape or fashion but you absolutely cannot take points off the board once they’ve been earned and earned legally. Junior’s infraction had nothing to do with racing and did not affect the outcome of the race. Junior received the same penalty as race teams get for attempting to cheat with their race cars. He made an error in choosing his words. Not an error in trying to use an engine part or shock that was illegal in attempt to skirt the rules. NASCAR has made an error in how to deal with this situation. They’ve said that taking points away from drivers is the only thing that gets their attention. That may be true but NASCAR, again, has focused attention on their non-sensicle rule making.