Tony Stewart met with the media Friday at Talladega Superspeedway:
WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION TO THE WHOLE LUGNUT CONTROVERSY, WHICH HAS BEEN RESOLVED WITH THE RULES CHANGE? WHAT WENT INTO YOUR DECISION TO MAKE TWHAT WAS YOUR REACTION TO THE WHOLE LUGNUT CONTROVERSY, WHICH HAS BEEN RESOLVED WITH THE RULES CHE DONATION TO THE AUTISM SOCIETY?
Stewart: “I’ve been trying to figure out how many more $35,000 rules changes I want to make (laughter). I’m glad that something has been done. Scott Miller is a huge asset to NASCAR right now. And from what I understand, he’s the one who spearheaded getting something done. You hate to have to pay $35,000 to get somebody’s attention to do something, but apparently that’s what it took. I’ve got questions that I’d like to have answers to. I’m still wondering why I’m paying a $35,000 fine for something that got changed three days later. But, it is what it is. I was gone that evening when the announcement came out that I was getting the fine and the Driver Council, we all have a chat that we get in and when I was able to get back on my phone for 90 messages of discussions of what went on with those guys and I realized what they had done at about three in the morning. I didn’t want to take their money. I appreciated their support and I think they made a huge statement about what the Driver Council is about and the fact that they didn’t believe what I did deserved the fine. And with that, that’s why they decided to support us and help split the fine with me. I didn’t feel comfortable taking the money. And so what we decided as a group was to put the money together and give it to a great charity. Artie Kemper (founder of Autism Delaware) is a great friend to everybody in NASCAR and is somebody that we all as a group know personally and we thought that would really make a big difference. So that’s why we chose that charity. But we did it collectively, as a group; and that’s something I’m really proud of with this Driver Council is how the drivers are united about everything that we’re doing. This was the first time something had happened where somebody on the Council got a penalty for speaking an opinion and for them to show that kind of support and show that we’re all one unit; and that’s something that you don’t normally see and we haven’t seen in this sport. Guys talk amongst each other, but somebody gets in trouble for something where the rest of the drivers, privately, will support it but can’t publicly support it. So this was the first time that we’ve seen public support like that and I think it went a long way.”
Stewart has a good point when he questions why he is getting fined when NASCAR basically agreed with his comment and changed the rules three days later! It doesn’t make sense to the normal rational observer. Can we say hypocritical?
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
