NASCAR Fining Drivers for Criticism

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida — Unconfirmed reports assert that NASCAR has been fining competitors as much as $50,000 for comments critical of the sport.

The Associated Press and Speed TV both carried versions of the story, with each claiming two drivers had been fined. They used information from anonymous sources and asserted that NASCAR believes its current slump — Sunday's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway played to a far-from-full grandstand crowd — is at least partly due to self-inflicted wounds.

Some action has been taken, NASCAR spokesman Ramsay Poston confirmed. He did not specify what was done or to whom, but said, "We have specifically discussed this in meetings with teams, drivers and stakeholders."

The independent-contractor status of NASCAR competitors has protected the sanctioning body from some of the burdens of other professional sports, such as collective bargaining and pension plans.

At the same time, NASCAR has a history of iron-fisted rule under founder Bill France and his family successors, Bill France, Jr., and Brian France. The elder France led his fledgling organization in the post-World War II years to pre-eminence among a number of groups that attempted to exploit the explosion of prosperity and the popularity of the revived sport of auto racing, dormant from 1942-'45.

France had to take a hard-line stance in the rough-and-tumble early days. When he took his idea for a new-car stock car series — the idea that grew into the present-day Sprint Cup Series — to the American Automobile Association, the only major sanctioning body of the time, he was rebuffed and, instead, AAA formed its own stock car series.

Inside Line says: The most prominent competitor complaints this year have been about each other, but also regarding NASCAR's handling of the "boys, have at it" policy regarding driver behavior. Complaints directly against the sanctioning body have been more pointed in previous seasons. — David Green, Correspondent