Double
Secret Probation: NASCAR Takes a Chapter from Animal House
February 14, 2008
Mickey Mills –
SCR
NASCAR announced that
it has levied six weeks probation for drivers Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch for their on-track altercation last Friday night. From
where I sit, this carries about the same weight as Dean Wormer’s, Double Secret Probation, in the 1978 film Animal House.
With the kind of money
sponsors are pouring into an arguably declining sport, NASCAR is looking for ways to keep from killing the cash cow. The
absence of hard penalties against the pair indicates a softening of actions against drivers for on track altercations. A
similar event in the past has brought stiff fines for those involved.
Think back to the year
1979. The fisticuffs between Cale Yarborough and the Allison brothers after a turn three crash on the last lap of the
Daytona 500 catapulted the sport into the main stream media. The seas parted and the fans flowed in. In the years
that followed, popularity of NASCAR racing surged against other sports and gained a national audience. However, over
the last three years there has been a steady decline in attendance at some events and a drop in the TV ratings. The powers
to be at the NASCAR front office sees a dwindling of popularity and they know something has to be done differently to take
the sport back its previous luster. What better way to do it than to popularize the feud of the day. Whether it’s
Stewart/Busch, Kevin Harvick/ Juan Pablo Montoya or Robbie Gordon/fill-in-the-blank, NASCAR will take advantage of the press
that comes with these popular match ups.
Officials have indicated
that drivers this season would be given more leeway to express emotion. In front of a small gathering of media types,
vice president for corporate communications Jim Hunter stated, "This is the NASCAR everybody fell in love with. Emotions
run high. As far as penalties, we'll wait and see." This indicates that NASCAR is prepared to give the drivers some latitude
in their actions on and off the track.
Specifically, Stewart
and Kurt Busch are guilty of violating Section 12-4-A (actions detrimental to stock car racing; altercation with another competitor)
of the NASCAR rule book. In the recent past this same violation has garnered team’s hefty fines in the tens of
thousands of dollars. The probation of Stewart and Busch represents a slap on the wrist and a; “Don’t let
it happen again,” statement from officials.
NASCAR spokesman Ramsey
Poston said; "If there is a repeat between these two, then we will take it much more seriously." It will be interesting
to see how this impacts racing on the track. Ask the drivers and they’d probably say… “Let us pay the
fine right now and let us race.” As it stands now, if it comes down to the last few laps of the 500 with Stewart
and Busch on point, the racing could have the excitement of lawn darts. In NASCAR’s eagerness to inject and maintain
some excitement in the sport they are creating a situation which could have the exact opposite effect.
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Consider this scenario: Should
these guys find themselves racing to the checkered flag like Mark Martin and Harvick last year, and take each other out, NASCAR
will find themselves in the situation of having to enforce the probation. If they don’t enforce, they completely
lose credibility. With the kind of money that Home Depot and Miller Lite pour into these teams, not to mention the involvement
of Joe Gibbs and Roger Penske, I just can’t see NASCAR officials being heavy handed and deal out the kind of penalty
that situation would warrant.
This does punctuate the
same thing I’ve been saying all along. There needs to be a consistent penalty sheet. If you violate X, it
costs you Y. No matter who you are, no matter what car you drive, no matter what sponsor emblem is splashed on the hood. The
fine is always Y… end of story… bottom line. You can’t mold the penalty to fit the circumstance. In
our society this is nothing short of discrimination. People have gone to jail for discriminatory activities. It
doesn’t have a place in society, and it certainly doesn’t have a place in NASCAR rules enforcement.
If the sanctioning body
does not get this figured out soon the history books of tomorrow may compare this period in history to the fall of the Roman Empire; except the members of
Delta House have traded their Togas for Racing Uniforms.
2006 StockCar Review.
