NASCAR Stewart regrets 'wrestling' remark

The fesity driver had an early morning wakeup call with top officials.
TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) -- Tony Stewart backpedaled from his remarks that likened NASCAR to professional wrestling, acknowledging Friday that he hurt the integrity of the sport.
The two-time champion was called to a 6 a.m. meeting with NASCAR president Mike Helton, competition director Robin Pemberton and series director John Darby when the garage opened Friday at Talladega Superspeedway.
"It's a little tender for me to sit down right now," he deadpanned.
But Stewart otherwise was serious about the controversy he started with a stinging rant on his weekly Sirius Satellite Radio program.
During his Tuesday night show, Stewart accused NASCAR of using bogus debris cautions to orchestrate the races.
Not the case
Stewart said the meeting convinced him that's not the case, and the races are indeed called fairly. But he acknowledged his initial comments damaged the sport.
"I'm sure I did," he said.
"Everybody in this building makes a living off this sport, I make a living off this sport -- a lot of work, a lot of obligations. It's not a free ride for anybody here.
"Yeah, I probably did hurt the integrity of the sport."
That's been the core issue of Stewart's rant, which began as an explanation of why he skipped the post-race news conference following his second-place finish in Phoenix last Saturday night. Stewart said he refused to do interviews to avoid bashing NASCAR over the way it manipulates the races.
"It's like playing God," he said on his show. "They can almost dictate the race instead of the drivers doing it. It's happened too many times this year."
Stewart, who said he was fighting a fever and left the two-hour show early, went on to say fans are complaining about debris cautions and NASCAR isn't listening.
"I guess NASCAR thinks, 'Hey, wrestling worked, and it was for the most part staged, so I guess it's going to work in racing, too,' " he said. "I can't understand how long the fans are going to let NASCAR treat them like they're stupid before the fans finally turn on NASCAR.
"I don't know that they've run a fair race all year."
NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter has been the only official to address the remarks publicly so far, saying the sanctioning body was disappointed in Stewart's remarks.
That was expressed to Stewart in Friday's meeting by the very people whose credibility he had questioned during his rant. NASCAR races are officiated in a scoring tower above the booth by an eight-member panel that includes Helton, Pemberton and Darby.
"Some of the individuals felt it was a personal attack on them," Stewart said.
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