Yahoo Autos Tony Stewart Fined by NASCAR Before He Even Gets in the Car
Tony Stewart's welcome back to the NASCAR Sprint Cup series was anything but warm. Stewart hasn't even made his return to the starting grid yet, but the series has hit him with a $35,000 fine. Sheesh.
It seems Stewart, like many other drivers, is baffled by NASCAR's befuddling decision to no longer require pit crews to install all five lug nuts after changing tires, a decision made at the end of last season to cut down on the number of officials in each team's pit box.
The rule change has led to teams running with only three out of five lug nuts installed at times. If that sounds harrowingly dangerous to you, Smoke thinks you're on the right track.
"I guarantee you that envelope is going to keep getting pushed until somebody gets hurt," Stewart said to USA Today's Jeff Gluck.
"With all the crap we're going through with all the safety stuff, and for them to sit there and sit on their hands on this one," Stewart continued. "This is not a game you play with safety and that's exactly the way I feel like NASCAR is treating this. This is not the way to do this."
"We shouldn't be playing games with safety to win races," he said. "It should be out-performing the other teams, not jeopardizing drivers' lives by teams putting two lug nuts on to try to get two more spots off pit road."
"It's going to happen when somebody gets hurt, and that's going to be one of the largest black eyes I can see NASCAR getting when they've worked so hard and done such a good job to make it safe," he said.
This, you could say, did not sit well with NASCAR.
The racing organization said that Smoke's comments violated a rule barring drivers from "disparaging the sport and/or NASCAR leadership."
So, just hours after Smoke announced his return to the Sprint Cup, and his final season before retirement, after missing the first eight races of the season for back surgery, NASCAR decides to smudge some dirt on what should've been a great day of news for racing fans.
The astounding thing is, Stewart is far from the only driver to comment on NASCAR's bone-headed lax lug nut enforcement. As Gluck at USA Today reminds us, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., said last week that NASCAR's lug nut decision "freaks me out . . . I was blown away that NASCAR quit officiating that aspect (of pit stops). I could not believe that was the choice that they made. But that is the world we live in."
During a meeting with Associated Press reporters this afternoon, NASCAR CEO Brian France said, "we do take offense that anything we do is somehow leading towards an unsafe environment so [Stewart is] wrong on that."
The green flag drops at the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway this Sunday at 1pm.
