Stewart's fine a toothless bite

TONY STEWART No pain in penalty?

NASCAR, as expected, came down on Tony Stewart Tuesday for using inappropriate language in a televised interview following his victory in last Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. He told ESPN's Dave Burns, "This one is for everyone in the stands who pull[s] for me and [has] to take all the [expletive] from everyone else."

Whether the sanctioning body came down hard enough on the driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet remains to be seen after NASCAR fined Stewart $25,000, docked him 25 driver points, and docked his boss, Joe Gibbs, 25 championship owner points.

It was the second time this season Stewart had run afoul of NASCAR officials after he was fined $10,000 and placed on probation until Dec. 31 for skipping his postrace media obligations after his runner-up finish in the Subway Fresh Fit 500 in Phoenix April 21.

NASCAR's latest attempt to discipline Stewart came off more like a slap on the wrist.

After all, you're talking about a driver who has pocketed nearly $4 million in earnings this season ($3,968,088) after posting back-to-back victories at Chicagoland Speedway July 15 (which snapped a 20-race winless skein) and at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Stewart also won the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard in 2005, which helped the Columbus, Ind., native to his second title in NASCAR's top series.

The fine barely dented Stewart's wallet and the points deduction still left him in fifth place in the Nextel Cup Series driver standings with 2,599, 17 ahead of Carl Edwards (2,582) and 477 behind leader Jeff Gordon (3,076) with six events left in The Race to the Chase, beginning with tomorrow's Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway.

NASCAR will maintain it was just trying to be consistent. And, for that, it should be applauded. NASCAR took sanctions against Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2004 for his similar use of a profanity following his televised Victory Lane interview at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

Have fines and point deductions served as a deterrent to such objectionable use of bad language on the air? Given Stewart's actions, maybe not.

As one driver suggested in July at New Hampshire International Speedway before the Lenox Industrial Tools 300, it might be time for NASCAR to consider more punitive action against those drivers among the top 12 who violate the rules.

Remember, as this driver pointed out, the top 12 are locked into the Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship and the only way to make a penalty sting would be to take away bonus points.

For the record, the driver who suggested such a penalty -- not necessarily against Stewart, mind you -- was none other than Stewart's teammate Denny Hamlin, with whom Stewart had a run-in at Daytona in July's Pepsi 400 and a reconciliation (sort of) before Stewart's Chicagoland victory.

Once the 12-man field is set for the 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship, the field will be reseeded with 10-point bonuses awarded to each driver for each victory recorded in the first 26 races. So, in effect, if Hamlin's suggestions were put into action, Stewart would be looking at an additional deduction of 20 bonus points. That might get his attention.

Until then, however, Stewart is likely to go on believing his unvarnished opinions -- usually peppered with salty language -- are precisely what his fans can expect to hear.

"My fans like us because we call a spade a spade," Stewart said after his triumph last Sunday.

"We wear our emotions on our shoulders. [You] never have to wonder where you stand with us. We're not going to give the vanilla answer. We are going to be us. The people [who] appreciate that are Tony Stewart fans."

NASCAR hit Greg Biffle with a $5,000 fine Tuesday and placed him on probation until Dec. 31 for failing to fulfill his postrace media obligations after his second-place finish last Saturday night in the Busch Series Kroger 200 at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis. As part of the rules, the winning driver, second- and third-place finishers, plus the highest finishing rookie candidate, must report for postrace interviews. Biffle said he conducted interviews on pit road with TV, radio, and print media, but was unable to report to the press box because it meant having to swim against the tide of the departing crowd. "I believe there was a misunderstanding on my part as to how we would be getting to the press box and at the time it seemed that we would be trying to walk in the opposite direction of thousands of fans trying to exit the grandstands," Biffle said. "I want to be clear that I was very excited about the second-place finish and was in no hurry to leave. It just seemed unreasonable at the time to try to get to the press box as the grandstands were emptying in the opposite direction." . . . Busch East Series driver Rogelio Lopez became the second Mexican-born driver to win a race in series history and first to do so on an oval after he won the Music City 150 at the Music City Motorplex in Nashville July 22. "This means a lot to me," said Lopez of Aguascalientes, Mexico. "It's not the same as winning on a road course. That's what NASCAR means: oval courses. This means a lot to me and the Mexican guys." Ruben Pardo of Mexico City was the first Mexican-born driver to win a Busch East race, in last year's road-course event at Lime Rock (Conn.) Park . . . Donny Lia of Jericho, N.Y., will be looking for his fourth career triumph at his home track at Riverhead (N.Y.) Raceway tonight in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour's Miller Lite 140. Lia, a four-time winner this season who ranks as the Modified Tour point leader with 1,104 (53 ahead of Matt Hirschman), will attempt to return to Victory Lane at Riverhead, where he recorded his first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victory in 2003 . . . Edwards, the runaway Busch Series points leader, will be pulling double duty when he competes in today's Busch Series race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve road course in Montreal, marking NASCAR's inaugural race in Canada, and tomorrow's Nextel Cup event at Pocono.

Earnhardt's nearly five-year stretch without a first-place qualifying finish ended at Long Pond, Pa., last night with a lap of 169.975 miles per hour at Pocono Raceway. It was his first pole since September 2002. This time a well-timed rain shower helped. "I don't put a lot of emphasis on poles," he said. "I probably do that because I don't get them so often." His lap after a 45-minute rain delay put Kurt Busch in second with a lap of 169.863 and Kyle Busch third at 169.782. Earnhardt guessed his car would have qualified between fifth and 12th had it not rained.

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com. Material from the Associated Press, personal interviews, sanctioning bodies, race teams, sponsors and track publicity departments was used in the preparation of this report.