Brian France: Tone of Tony Stewart’s remarks led to fine
We have confirmation of the reasoning behind NASCAR’s $35,000 fine of Tony Stewart.
NASCAR CEO Brian France appeared on SiriusXM on Monday after the sanctioning body’s decision to mandate teams fasten all lug nuts to wheels effective immediately. As you likely know by now, Stewart was fined $35,000 for his criticism of NASCAR’s lug nut enforcement.
And as you also likely know, NASCAR isn’t changing its lug nut rules if Stewart doesn’t make his comments. But while the sanctioning body ultimately believed Stewart had an incredibly valid point, it was unhappy with the way he expressed himself. From NBC Sports:
“I think we have to make judgment calls and how we look at the tone of what someone says, how they’re saying it,’’ France said. “They have ample opportunities, particularly with safety, to deal with us directly on that. But to insinuate that we’re taking the sport down a road that doesn’t care about safety or we’re trying to hurt people, those kind of comments, that goes to the integrity of the sport and we’ll have to deal with that. We go way beyond what any other league would allow in terms of how far people can go in voicing their view.
“There’s just a little line out there that is a bright line and everybody is aware of. Every once in a while we’ll have a driver or somebody else that gets over that line and we’ll just have to deal with it. It’s not a big thing. We deal with it. They understand it and we move on. That’s how it goes.’’
NASCAR’s Drivers Council, made up of influential drivers in the sport including Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin and others, said a few hours after Stewart was fined that it would pay the fine for the three-time champion. Friday, Hamlin said he didn’t know where the line NASCAR had drawn in the sand between acceptable and objectionable was.
“I don’t know where the line is, I don’t know if there is a line – obviously there is a line, but obviously we just believe that you should be able to express your opinion as long as you’re not just totally trashing the sport itself or anything like that,” Hamlin said.
Do France’s comments make the location of the line clearer? A little bit. While it’s nice to see NASCAR clarify why Stewart was fined, the location of the line still feels arbitrary and, at best, semi-permanent.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
