Earnhardt Jr fined

Toward the end of Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol, on Lap 432, Earnhardt noticed a loose rear wheel on his car. Realising he would lose two or three laps by pitting under green, he looped his car entering Turn 3, and NASCAR officials presented the yellow flag. Earnhardt then was able to pit under caution for repairs and did not lose a lap.

No other cars were involved and no damage was done. But Earnhardt's action clearly violated the rules of racing sportsmanship, and NASCAR concluded Wednesday that he had broken not only commandment 12-4-A (the usual "actions detrimental to stock car racing") but also the more-specific section 12-4-N - "any driver who, in the judgment of NASCAR officials, intentionally causes or attempts to cause a caution condition by stopping or spinning out or any other action."

Earnhardt might have got away with it had he not talked about it afterward with the press.

"I had a loose wheel, and I didn't have any choice but to spin the car out to get a caution," he said candidly. "So I went down in the corner, had some clear room behind me, and I just spun it out. The caution came out, I put the clutch in and got going. What the hell else was I supposed to do? Go a lap down? Go two laps down?"

The act, and the confession, did not sit well with NASCAR.

"The driver of the No. 8 car was quite vocal in admitting he intentionally spun out his car to cause a caution condition on the track, which is clearly prohibited in the NASCAR rule book," NASCAR president Mike Helton said. "We have several rules in our rule book that have been in place for quite some time to prevent someone from altering the outcome of an event. This was a clear-cut case of that. We will always react to protect the integrity of our sport."

Earnhardt remains third in the point standings.