Jr fined $10,000 and 25 points

[muggle not]

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla -- Driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. was penalized with a loss of 25 championship driver points and a $10,000 fine for an inappropriate post-race comment during the live national television broadcast of Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, NASCAR officials announced Tuesday.



Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 8 Chevrolet, was in violation of Section 12-4-A (Actions detrimental to stock car racing) of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Rule Book for using inappropriate language.

The penalty also will extend to the team as Dale Earnhardt Inc. will lose 25 championship owner points for the actions of its driver.

Earnhardt Jr.'s championship points total will be adjusted from 5,543 points to 5,518 as a result of the penalty, and will drop him from first to second in the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup.

Kurt Busch and Roush Racing will assume the lead with 5,530 points, 12 ahead of Earnhardt Jr. and DEI, respectively.

nascar.com

[neilwaynesmith]

For gods sake, the man slipped in one word with the adrenaline flowing that virtually ALL Americans use in one ccontext or another anyway! What's the big deal? We have drivers threatening each other in post race interviews, however subtly, and getting away with it.

This is just typical American knee-jerk reaction, perhaps a legacy of the Janet Jackson 'wardrobe malfunction' scenario.

NASCAR; GROW UP.

[gttouring]

NAScar should grow up
but than again the "detrimental to stock car" could have been a thirty year old man referring to his father as "daddy"
heh
no really this fine is way strong for saying poo on air- he and many drivers have said worse, 25 points?!
well it is consistent with penaltie given out before so in thisi regard no one is immune to this iron fist of NASCAR
on another note
isn't have a prayer before every race a bit much?
i mean they go on to say a christian prayer (Jesus an all that) what if there are Jews in the stands or Buddhists or Muslims Zoroastarists, Taosist and such Wicca anyone?(as unlikely as the scenario for other creeds there is)
they don't want to mire "stock car" racing with words than why single out the viewership or the attendance with a single type of invocation before the race?
NASCAR doesn't need to my "daddy" telling me or drivers what they can and can't say- just as they have been forcing me to go to church every sunday as well and listening to the "invocation"
(i usually turn back to the race as reen flag drops- i don't need to here by lines and stories or the anthem for 38 times a year or every driver saying hi to me- just race dammit)

[rbs]

Why did Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon get "away" with their victory lane antics this season. Gordon did not even take his car to victory lane as his sponsors conflict with the "blue bottle", that must have warrented a fine and points deduction if Jnr gets a fine for a minor language discression.

[kingfloopy]

NBC is going to start using a 5 second delay on their broadcasts. I wonder if drivers will still get fined if its bleeped? The delay is probally more to protect NBC from FCC fines than anything.

J.D.

[24thunder]

Dale Jr. was penalized in the same vein as the 2 Busch drivers that used similar language,NASCAR got it right this time around,consistency for once,although the $10,000 in the Cup Series doesn't mean as much as that amount means in Busch Series,but at least the points reduction was the same,although that hurt Dale Jr. in the Title hunt a lot more than the points reduction menat to the 2 Busch Series drivers as neither driver was really in the hunt for the Title in that Series.

[kingfloopy]

NBC is going to a five second delay on the race broadcasts. I imagine NASCAR will still fine drivers though and that the delay is more to protect NBC from the FCC than anything.

J.D.

[Bob Riebe]

I wish his daddy was still alive now.
I am sure the France boys would have heard a more than strong sermon from the old man.

[Jack Man]

All these guys have to abide by all the rules. He was pumped up and happy but he made a mistake. Just giving him a fine would not get Nascars message through. Jr even said fine me 200 thousand and let me keep the points. This shows Nascar is serious about their image and these teams and drivers better be as well. Anyone involved with any sponsored team knows when your in that painted up transporter or wearing those team colours you have to mind your comments.

[gttouring]

true an over reaction on NASCARs yellow trailer boys...
"Why did Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon get "away" with their victory lane antics this season. Gordon did not even take his car to victory lane as his sponsors conflict with the "blue bottle", that must have warrented a fine and points deduction if Jnr gets a fine for a minor language discression"
in reference to this
the action was deemed more sponsor driven and gordon was "impromtu" so no fine could be given- this was a reaction to nascar stating they WOULD fine if you messed up a sponsor presentation IN victory lane- so they went around this by avoiding it alltogether- they have been reprmanded however.
and consider celebrating at the line on top your car is hardly detrimental to stock car racing, helio castroneves never got busted for fence climbing- avoiding victory lane, and all in the IRL but those actions are not detrimental to open wheel racing, the IRL/CART split is...
so Gordon and Johnson hadn't done anything censor-able, and did political things making stock car racing still very new and clnical and sponsor driven- Jr. made an oops by being too appy and expressive in a manner the CEOs and puritan PITA standards in this country find detrimental
this is off plot if anything
(pain in the A-)

[BootsOntheSide]

It seems ridiculous to issue a fine or penalty for something like that. The insult wasn't aimed at anyone and wasn't a pre-planned effort to offend. It seems ridiculous that American TV can show news footage of suicide bombings and attacks in Iraq, but not a breast or a swear word.

[kingfloopy]

I think that it's good that NASCAR is being consistent with their penalties. I really don't think Dale Jr. should get special treatment over the other drivers who have been penalized in the same manner. I have nothing against him, but it would unfair for NASCAR to give him special treatment, no matter if the cussing was in jubilation or not.

J.D

[jj2728]

i can think of no other series, let alone sport where someone is penalized points-wise for cursing.....just goes to show how politically correct and how much NASCAR feels that they have to cater both to the bible-thumpers and studio execs without really understanding that the core fan base could really care less what dale jr. said.....if he loses the NEXTEL cup over this NASCAR will NEVER hear the end of it and they could quite likely LOSE quite a few of their fans...

[strangebloke]

Well after Jnr's problems at one of his good tracks yesterday it doesn't look like this will settle the Championship. If Busch doesn't have a problem in the last few races he'll probably win it.

Ironic isn't it that they introduce the new points system because Kenseth won the championship with only 1 win last year. Now Busch is leading it and there's 3 drivers behind him that have won more races!!

It wasn't broken it didn't need fixing.