Hold on – here is the bump and the SPIN OUT!<\/p>\n
Sit him down! Fine him! Throw him out of NASCAR! This immature driver needs
\nto be parked! These are some of things were hearing about Tony Stewart and the
\nsituation that transpired after the Brickyard 400. Reports state that after Tony
\ngot out of his car at the end of the Brickyard 400, an Indianapolis Star
\nfree-lance photographer was either hit, pushed, kicked, bitten, slapped in the
\nchest causing the media to call for an immediate end to Tony’s 2002 driving
\ncampaign.<\/p>\n
Before we go any further, let me STRESS that I do not condone physically or
\nmentally abusing anyone! It’s wrong and should not be tolerated.<\/p>\n
Unlike many in the world of the media, NASCAR did the right thing –
\nmaintained Tony’s innocence until the investigation was completed. By doing this
\nthey maintained integrity. In return they fined Tony $10,000 and placed him
\nprobation. However, I think Tony MUST HAVE HAD a few good points that NASCAR
\ntook into consideration or his fine would have been much, much more. For what
\nNASCAR did in taking a few days to look into the incident I applaud them and as
\na FAN I support their decision. However as a FAN, like I have done with many
\nother drivers during their darkest hours, I will stick behind Tony because I SEE
\na GROWING problem in NASCAR.<\/p>\n
This is how I look at it and PLEASE hear me loud and clear Indianapolis Star.
\nANYONE, who follows NASCAR as much as some of us do, know for a fact Tony
\nStewart, has had a PROBLEM in the past with his temper. He is a fierce
\ncompetitor and he has an enormous RAW passion for racing very similar to my
\nfellow Houstonian during his younger days, A.J. Floyt.<\/p>\n
I have several questions that I would like to ask the ALMIGHTY Indianapolis
\nStar. Why wasn’t the photographer snapping photo’s of Bill Elliott in Victory
\nLane instead of chasing down the 12th place finisher? If this specific
\nphotographer has such an infatuation for Tony, why didn’t he know about his
\ntemper? Why would Tony, out of the blue punch someone who had nothing to do with
\nthe race, because he was PROVOKED! Yes, I said it – PROVOKED!<\/p>\n
Common people, when Tony gets out of his car, history tells us that if he had
\na bad day he DISAPPEARS and he disappears quickly. It’s apart of him dealing
\nwith his anger problem and it’s not for us to decide if that’s the best way to
\nhandle it or not. Even during the IROC series, it’s NOW YOU SEE HIM, NOW YOU
\nDON’T, just look at Chicagoland for an example. Poor looser, perhaps, but it’s
\nhow he deals with his issues. SO, when Tony gets out of his car after the
\nBrickyard 400 and he’s approached by this free-lance photographer and when
\nTony’s doesn’t want to stand around with a smile on his face, to get away from
\nthis photographer he begins trotting to his motor-coach. In a PAPARAZZI approach
\nto get his BIG PICTURE, Mr. Free-lance Photographer decides to run along side of
\nTony until he can position himself in front of Tony, stop directly in front of a
\nrunning Tony Stewart to snap his shot. I am sure he blocked an all ready mad
\nTony Stewart provoking a physical reaction. Could it be classified as a racing
\ndeal? It worked for Jimmy Spencer and I don’t hear people asking for Jimmy’s
\ndriver’s license since he found it necessary to move Kurt Busch out of the way
\nat 200 mph.<\/p>\n
My point is – if someone has a problem, say they’re an alcoholic and this
\nperson is trying to stop, would you run next to them holding a COLD ONE offering
\nthem a drink? NO! So why didn’t this photographer knowing that Tony had a temper
\nback off when Tony began his trot to get away? Bottom line, he PROVOKED him
\nbecause the elite media in this country can get away with it.<\/p>\n
Mike Helton, NASCAR President said "This type of behavior cannot be
\ntolerated and is in no way indicative of the manner in which our drivers, teams,
\ntracks and sponsors interact with the media. We take pride in our accessibility
\nand interaction with the media and we intend to protect that relationship."<\/p>\n
I agree with Mike’s statement because as a businessperson you must agree.
\nNASCAR relies on media support and they do not want bad press. But, even though
\nNASCAR walks away looking good in this situation, NASCAR may need to look at
\ntheir policy of allowing drivers time away from the media to "get
\ncontrol" after getting out of a 130+ degree car after driving 400 miles.
\nWhen driver’s crash, they get to spend time in the infield care center before
\ntalking with the media, so to be PROACTIVE instead of REACTIVE, give them some
\ntime!<\/p>\n
The Indianapolis Star doesn’t see what they did wrong in preventing the
\nincident, but I BELIEVE both Tony and the photographer are at fault. Tony should
\nhave never touched the guy, but the photographer should have never provoked Tony
\ninto doing it.<\/p>\n
The Indianapolis Star’s assistant managing editor of sports Tim Wheatley,
\nsent a letter to NASCAR demanding a response and wants assurances that this will
\nnever happen again and wants their journalists to be able to do their jobs. I
\nwould recommend to Mr. Wheatley that he and his managing editor of sports look
\nat how their journalist are doing their job and "train" away from a
\npaparazzi style of journalism. Get the picture, but understand the circumstances
\nas well.<\/p>\n
One last issue and I’ll go away for another week. The Star hosts a columnist
\nwhose name I will withhold. But, he wrote a column and called it "Stewart
\nNeeds to Change His Ways" that ran this week. It was a rather good column
\nand I agreed with him on a few issues, however I disagree on others. I think it
\nis way too early to begin putting Tony Stewart under the same light as Bobby
\nKnight. Tony looses his temper and all of us agree that it is wrong, but give
\nthe guy some credit. He has come along way this year. The columnist continues to
\nsay how the end of Tony Stewart will not be pretty and people continue to make
\nexcuses for him. Well, people support Tony and other drivers who have made past
\nmistakes. NASCAR is unlike any sport they allow FANS to become close to their
\nfavorite drivers. Some FANS love their drivers as they would a child or a
\nbrother, allowing FANS to forgive at much higher levels. You won’t find that in
\nany other sport! In closing, he mentions how SAD it was that people donated
\nmoney to Tony when he SPUN Jeff Gordon last year. Some FANS felt Jeff deserved
\nit and believe me Indianapolis Star, some FANS will donate money this time too
\nbecause they believe in their favorite driver, Tony Stewart!<\/p>\n
This weeks SPIN OUT goes to – The Indianapolis Star! Colts – NO, Pacers – NO,
\nTony Stewart – YES, THANK, THANK YOU we have a story!<\/p>\n
Until next week, happy bumping!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hold on – here is the bump and the SPIN OUT! Sit him down! Fine him! Throw him out of NASCAR! This immature driver needs to be parked! These are some of things were hearing about Tony Stewart and the situation that transpired after the Brickyard 400. Reports state that after Tony got out of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-original-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}