Although he was far removed from Atlanta Motor
Speedway on Friday, NASCAR and IndyCar team owner Roger Penske was asked during
a media availability at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., of his reaction
to NASCAR's decision to give Tony Stewart a waiver to qualify for the Chase
should he win one of the last two races of the Sprint Cup Series regular
season.
Here was Penske's answer:
“Tony is so rock solid in the sport,
he's meant so much to NASCAR for so many years, and to me Mike Helton and
(Brian) France (Jr.) and the sanctioning body have made the right decision.
Obviously they've left open the opportunity if there was a situation that's
come up that's not normal, they can make that decision. But I'm not part
of that decision making, but I felt for Tony and certainly for the Ward family
for the last number of weeks," Penske said.
“I'm glad to see him come out. I
think his words and thoughts today that he said personally and wrote personally
were from the heart and means a lot to me and means a lot to the people in the
garage area and certainly means a lot to his fans."
This sounds like a usual PC statement....I wonder how Roger, the drivers and everyone else, _really_ feels about it? Would love to see a poll on NASCAR's decision.
ReplyDeleteThis is so awkward it isn't even funny. Stewart's won a lot of races, but what has he really meant for the sport?
DeleteThe right man, the right reason, the right time, thing to do!
ReplyDeleteNormally, I am against even the handing out of provisionals. I think the driver should earn his way into each and every race to make the championship truly meaningful, however, this is far from a normal situation and I applaud the Captain and NASCAR for showing such class by taking the special circumstances in the case to heart. For you naysayers, note that they are *NOT* handing Stewart an automatic by into the chase... he still needs to win one of only 2 races left to qualify which means his spot in the hunt is anything but assured!
ReplyDelete