Newman admits he was fined

Associated Press

LONG POND, Pa.

Asked the amount of his NASCAR fine, Ryan Newman kept quiet.

What did he do?

Shrugged shoulders.

Hey, maybe the threat of secret fines for speaking out against the stock car series is working after all.

NASCAR expects omerta (the code of silence) from its drivers when it comes to publicly lashing out against the sport. If they do, they’ll be fined.

Ask Newman or Denny Hamlin.

Both Sprint Cup drivers acknowledged they were the ones fined by NASCAR for making critical comments about the racing series.

“It’s not a good thing by any means for our sport,” Newman said Friday. “The less we talk about it, the more we can talk about the racing.”

Newman refused to disclose the amount of the fine or what he said. He implied that it was for comments he made after he crashed at Talladega Superspeedway.

Newman said in April that winning was “a lottery, racing for a championship shouldn’t be a lottery.” He added the wreck-heavy races at Talladega “affect our championship because it’s not racing.”

He was one of a few drivers Friday who blamed the media for stirring up controversy and an easy willingness to criticize the sport. Newman suggested if he was left alone for a few moments after his wreck instead of being instantly forced to answer questions, he might have cooled down and not been so quick to pop off.

“When you get a microphone stuck in your face when the adrenaline’s still rushing, don’t expect everything to be positive,” Newman said.

Hamlin said he was punished for comments he made on Twitter. He also did not reveal the amount of the fine.

Newman said the penalties are “behind me. It’s behind Denny right now.” He was frustrated about the fine “because I didn’t understand what it was or why it was.”

It also backs up NASCAR’s season-long effort to rebuild the slumping sport through an improved on-track product and off-track promotion from its drivers.

“We’re all in it together, and I understand that,” Hamlin said. “I definitely understand, I don’t really know what it was, but more than likely it was the Twitter comments more than anything that kind of got me in trouble with them.”