Warning: NASCAR to continue to fine competitors who ‘challenge the integrity of the sport’
NASCAR Chairman Brian France says NASCAR will continue to fine drivers who challenge the integrity of the sport. // Sam Cranston, NASCAR Illustrated
CHARLOTTE – NASCAR fines may no longer be secret, but the potential for penalties for disparaging comments or behavior remains unchanged.
Though NASCAR now plans to publicize all fines, NASCAR officials said Thursday that they would continue to penalize competitors who they determine have damaged “the integrity of the sport.”
NASCAR officials announced the change in policy earlier this week, and then explained their position during the final day of the Sprint Media tour Thursday at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
“If you challenge the integrity of the sport, we're going to deal with that,” NASCAR CEO Brian France said. “We have to deal with that. And I think what's really interesting is I can't tell you how many owners or drivers come up to me and say thanks for doing that because some of these comments were irresponsible and unhelpful to growing the sport.”
Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman have been previously fined for comments each had made, but the sanctioning body did not make the penalties public knowledge at the time they were issued. Such secrecy, some competitors said, made it unclear what would or would not be construed as “damaging.”
“We're not talking about who's critical of NASCAR,” France said. “You can be critical of things you don't think we're doing well, in particular a race call. You can say ‘I don't think I was speeding; I disagree with that.’ We understand that. It's when you go after the integrity of the sport is where we will step in, and they will be public.”
Keselowski, who was fined for criticizing NASCAR new fuel injection system last year, said he didn’t believe the decision to make future penalties public came from his fine last year or from recent meetings between the teams and NASCAR officials.
“I don’t think I have that influence,” he told a group of reporters Thursday. “It’s probably more of a direct result of you guys [the media] than anything else.”
While questionable comments aren’t as black and white as technical issues, Robin Pemberton, vice president of competition for NASCAR, said the same group of officials determine if and when a line has been crossed.
“If it’s a competition fine, it isn’t just Mike Fisher (Managing Director, NASCAR R&D) or (Sprint Cup Series Director) John Darby ... weighing in,” Pemberton said. “We run that stuff all the way up and all the way down. Brian [France] weighs in on all the penalties. A lot of people do.”
Pemberton acknowledged that the move to announce such fines was partly due to the media’s concern over the secrecy aspect of the fines and the question of how they were being levied.
Previously, he said, the determination to keep such fines private was to protect those who were involved, the competitors as well as the team’s sponsors.
“If you were private on [issuing] one, and it got out there, immediately everyone thought we had [issued] 100 fines,” he said. “And [in reality] you could count them on one hand.
“When we started out, private was about giving the benefit to a team, to not drag them through the mud. They’re embarrassed about what they said and it’s an embarrassment for their sponsor, and then for us to go through and drag everyone through the mud again ....
“Obviously we tried it one way and it didn’t work. It got put back on us because everybody thought we were trying to hide something and we’re not. So there they are.”
