A bunch of complaints

TONY STEWART NASCAR is "playing God" (FILE/PAUL CONNORS/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

When he climbed out of his car after finishing runner-up to Jeff Gordon in last Saturday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Phoenix International Speedway, Tony Stewart was stewing over the four caution periods (out of six) that race officials implemented for debris on the track.

Instead of going before the media to vent in a postrace interview, Stewart waited until Tuesday night to trash NASCAR on his Sirius Satellite radio show, as a way of making sure his message wouldn't be garbled.

"I don't mind doing it on my own radio show," said Stewart, "but you do it with some of these other guys and they're going to write it wrong and make it sound worse than what it is or whatever. Which, it's bad."

The driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet lobbed verbal grenades at NASCAR officials, accusing them of tampering with the "integrity of our sport" by using debris cautions to bunch up a strung-out field and orchestrate a more exciting finish.

"It's like playing God," Stewart said. "They can almost dictate the race at that point instead of the drivers doing it. It's happened too many times this year and it's to the point to where you just get so frustrated it's hard to fathom why the fans [aren't] when TV is saying, 'Hey, as soon as we can see it, we'll show it to you.' Obviously it's a topic of discussion or they wouldn't even say that. They'd go to commercial and skip over it.

"But enough has gone on that even fans are writing in, fans are calling in about it. At what point does NASCAR get the hint? I guess that NASCAR thinks, 'Hey, wrestling worked and it was, for the most part, staged, so I guess it's going to work in racing, too.' "

What really agitated Stewart was that "you have two cautions in a 312-lap race that are due to an incident and the rest of it is all debris."

Stewart pointed to the fact that during the first Happy Hour practice session at Phoenix, "they had so much oil-dry down from the [NASCAR West Series] race the night before that you couldn't even drive around there," but only one caution was unfurled when Ken Schrader's motor blew during practice.

"So they don't mind us running around with crap on the racetrack in practice, but, boy, as soon as there's one piece of rubber off a tire on the racetrack [during a race], they're more than willing to throw the caution to bunch everybody up and keep guys on the lead lap," Stewart said. "I thought that was what racing was all about -- being better than the rest of the guys."

As for eschewing the postrace interviews, Stewart said, "If it's going to create more destruction than it is good, what's the point in even going? When NASCAR can run a race right and not tamper with it every week like they're doing, then we'll follow along with them. But it's hard to follow along and want to do that [media] stuff when NASCAR won't even run a fair race.

"We get paid a lot of money to go out there and race, but, to me, it's not all about the money. It's about the integrity of the race and the integrity of the sport, and when I feel like our own sanctioning body isn't taking care of that, it's hard to support them. It's hard to feel proud about being a driver in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series when they're throwing debris cautions."

NASCAR officials have routinely absorbed the verbal slings and arrows of disgruntled drivers, owners, crew members, and fans, but Stewart may have pushed the envelope too far with his on-air rant.

While drivers are bound by no gag order, NASCAR officials were displeased by Stewart's remarks and summoned him to Talladega, Ala., for a meeting late in the week.

He emerged contrite, having been fined $10,000 and placed on probation until Dec. 31 for failing to fulfill his postrace media obligations.

"To hear that Tony Stewart said these things is very, very disappointing," said Jim Hunter, NASCAR's vice president for corporate communications in a statement. "NASCAR has been running races since 1948 and we place the safety of the drivers at the top of the list.

"We have more people and more resources than ever officiating our races. The safety of the drivers is our first priority. It has always been that way and will continue to be that way."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he was "blown away" when fans of his late father pelted Gordon with beer bottles after Gordon's victory at Phoenix tied him with Earnhardt for sixth place all-time in NASCAR with 76 wins. Gordon was paying tribute to the Man in Black by unfurling a black No. 3 flag and flying it on his victory lap.

"I was blown away that anybody would even take what Jeff did wrong and be offended," said Earnhardt, who personally congratulated Gordon in Victory Lane. "Hello -- I mean, he was waving a 3 flag. Just seems like to me he was trying to do the right thing and trying to say this guy was really good and I'm honored to have met one of his accomplishments."

Which was precisely Gordon's intent.

"We'd been holding on to that flag for a long time because we wanted to do something cool for Dale and pay tribute to him," said Gordon, who went 25 races between wins Nos. 75 and 76. "I had so much fun racing with him and I miss him a lot out there, and to do something that he had done in this sport is pretty overwhelming for anybody, and it is for me."

As for his celebration, Gordon said, "I wasn't sure how people were going to take it. I was afraid some people might think we're trying to get to the Earnhardt fans or think that we're saying we're as good as him, and that wasn't the case. We just wanted to honor him.

"It felt really good that Junior came in [to Victory Lane] and accepted it that way. It really means the world to me to be able to do this, at this point in my career."

Joey Logano, the 16-year-old wunderkind from Middletown, Conn., added another chapter to his growing legend when he won at Greenville-Pickens (S.C.) Speedway last night, his second NASCAR Grand National victory in less than 10 days. He won in his NASCAR debut in the West Series opener April 19 in Phoenix, finishing ahead of Joe Gibbs teammate Marc Davis . . . James Civali, 23, of Meriden, Conn., the 2006 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Rookie of the Year, beat out Chuck Hossfeld to capture his second career victory in the series in last Sunday's Icebreaker at Thompson (Conn.) International Speedway. Nine-time NASCAR champion Mike Stefanik, last year's Icebreaker winner and the defending NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion, had his day end prematurely on Lap 35 because of suspension failure.

Material from personal interviews, sanctioning bodies, race teams, sponsors, and track publicity departments was used in this report.