AUTO RACING NASCAR serious about keeping language clean

Dale Earnhardt's 25-point penalty has dropped him from first place.
By JOHN STURBIN
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
FORT WORTH, Texas -- It don't mean shoot!
That's what Dale Earnhardt Jr. probably wishes he would have said Sunday, when a vulgarity uttered during dinner hour on network TV at Talladega Superspeedway threw a whole new plot twist into the inaugural Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup.
NASCAR's decision to deduct 25 points from Junior's championship-leading total for using the s-word -- for the moment dropping Earnhardt Jr. 12 points behind Kurt Busch -- is one of those conundrums that reinforces the fact that some of us are not smart enough to be a lawyer.
But let's examine the facts anyway.
There clearly was precedent here. NASCAR president Mike Helton earlier had warned drivers in all of the sanctioning body's national touring series to watch their language during live radio and TV interviews.
Jackson's malfunction
This warning was sounded in the aftermath of Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVIII. CBS was fined a record $550,000 by the Federal Communications Commission for Jackson's breast-baring, and regulators promised to crack down on on-air obscenity.
Along those lines, NASCAR already had deducted 25 points from Busch Series drivers Johnny Sauter and Ron Hornaday Jr. for "inappropriate language" during separate interviews.
But, does NASCAR really want the championship of its premier series decided not on the racetrack at 190 mph -- as was the case after Junior's two-tire pit stop gamble and splendid drive on Sunday -- but by a slip of the tongue made post-race in answer to an innocuous question?
You know that no one at NASCAR world headquarters in Daytona Beach, Fla., wants the inaugural 10-driver/10-race Chase championship decided by the margin of Junior's 25-point penalty.
So, give Helton & amp; Co. credit for taking Junior to the same woodshed as Sauter and Hornaday Jr., as a matter of consistency.
But really, what else could Helton and NASCAR have done?
Dilemma
If the sanctioning body had opted to either blow off the 25-point deduction and merely fine Junior and Dale Earnhardt Inc., or serve both with a lesser points penalty, it would have been charged with operating via a separate set of rules.
The same holds for introducing a new set of "Chase only" rules, sort of on the fly.
Any such decision would have added ammunition to the conspiracy theorists who believe that Junior, and to a lesser extent DEI teammate Michael Waltrip, receive preferential treatment from NASCAR at all four Cup races run with a carburetor restrictor plate.
The warped idea there is that NASCAR vice chairman Bill France Jr. is "paying back" Junior and stepmother Teresa Earnhardt and DEI for the untimely death of seven-time Cup champion Dale Earnhardt in the 2001 season-opening Daytona 500.
Another theory
But, the same theorists also can point to the spring 2003 plate race at Talladega, where Junior really did dip below the yellow line marking out-of-bounds while passing for the lead en route to the third of the four consecutive races he won at NASCAR's fastest racetrack.
The theorists argue that anyone but NASCAR's "Chosen One" would have been black-flagged, brought to pit road and sent back to the end of the longest line.
So, NASCAR made the only call it could without bringing its integrity into further question.
DEI dutifully plans to appeal the decision, an exercise in futility since appeals are heard by a panel selected by NASCAR from the National Stock Car Commission.
Meanwhile, Richie Gilmore, director of competition for DEI, said Tuesday it seems to him that Junior is being penalized for his "colorful personality" and a remark made during a moment of jubilation.
Asked by NBC's Matt Yocum about the significance of his fifth career Cup victory at Talladega, Junior replied, "It don't mean s--- right now. Daddy's won here 10 times."
Twenty-five lost points later, but thankfully with seven races to go, we are faced with the possibility that NASCAR's 2004 Cup champion might be determined by a four-letter word.