Tony Stewart Is A Coward

On Tuesday night Tony Stewart made some very interesting comments about NASCAR.

Two-time champion Tony Stewart likened NASCAR to professional wrestling and accused it of using bogus caution flags to shape races in biting comments made on his weekly radio show.

Stewart's appearance on his Tuesday night show was his first since skipping a post-race press conference in Phoenix. He dominated Saturday night's race but lost after a late exchange of leads with winner Jeff Gordon. Stewart said he refused interviews to avoid bashing NASCAR after officials threw four cautions for debris on the track.

"It's like playing God," he said on his Sirius Satellite Radio program. "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.

In my opinion, he was right. NASCAR seems to be calling cautions on a "preferential" basis lately. Even my kids have noticed it. NASCAR only upholds the rules they want to uphold. I have mentioned it before on Information Salad. NASCAR is not consistent. They will ignore the violations made by some teams, while fining others for the exact same violation. Basically, NASCAR does what NASCAR wants to do, and they are damaging the sport, Tony Stewart isn't. He was right, plain and simple.

Fast forward to today…

Before he was allowed in the racetrack, NASCAR made sure Tony Stewart knew the rules.

Summoned to a 6 a.m. meeting Friday morning with top series officials, the two-time champion retracted every bit of the sharp rant he launched against NASCAR while admitting he damaged the sport's credibility by likening it to professional wrestling.

"I'm sure I did hurt the integrity of it, and unfairly," he said.

Although Stewart wasn't punished for the comments he made on his weekly Sirius Satellite Radio show, NASCAR did fine him $10,000 for skipping a postrace news conference in Phoenix last week. He also was placed on probation through the end of the year.

"I can assure you, Tony Stewart knows where he stands with NASCAR right now," spokesman Jim Hunter said.

NASCAR could not do squat about the comments on his radio show, so they took action the only way they could, by hiding behind their big bad rulebook. If this violation was so heinous why didn't they say something before his radio show? Why wait until the Friday after the race to meet with him and hand down the fine? It's obvious the fine was nothing more than a simple act of retaliation for the rant.

When NASCAR fined him they proved his point. By handing down the fine , and the fact it came 6 days after he failed to appear at the mandatory press conference, NASCAR performed exactly like he described on his show.

What really pisses me off though, is that Tony "retracted every bit of the sharp rant".

He was not fined for the rant. He was fined for not showing up for the mandatory press conference after the race last Saturday. Allegedly, the fine had nothing to do with the rant, so why would he retract his statements? He should have stood his ground. Until he retracted his statements, NASCAR looked like fools.

NASCAR must control everything, especially if Tony was willing to retract statements he knew were true.