Join the Discussion "What happened to the penalty box idea? Certainly Harvick would've been hitting cars from behind at Martinsville today, but they could've brought him in for some stop-n-go penalties and if neccessary, parked him in the Cup event too." 3003David

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Dateline: April 15, 2002

Kevin Harvick, who took over for Dale Earnhardt last season, was officially "parked" and was not allowed to race in Martinsville this Sunday. Is it fair for NASCAR to penalize a driver's Winston Cup effort for incidents that occurred during Busch and Truck series shows?

NASCAR has warned drivers for two years now that they were not happy with the post-race and on-track displays of temper. They had always enforced these rules with fines before, but the incidents still kept occuring. NASCAR then felt that they had to express their penalty in a way that would get the drivers attention. Making a driver miss a Winston Cup race should certainly get everybody's attention and I'm confident that we will see fewer of these incidents for the rest of the season.

It was announced today that in addition to the penalties Harvick has already served that he will be fined $35,000 and his probation will be extended until December 31, 2002. Along with the fine, NASCAR president Mike Helton warned that any further violations could result in an indefinite suspension from NASCAR.

This $35,000 is in addition to the $15,000 that he paid after the Biffle incident. $50,000 total dollars plus untold more money lost by his not being allowed to race yesterday? I think NASCAR has finally figured out how to make a point.

Richard Childress, Harvick's car owner, has taken the position that since the initial incident was during a Busch race, and the most recent incident occurred during a Craftsman Truck series race that the penalties should remain in those series and not bleed over into Winston Cup. It's a fair point, but in this case the driver had demonstrated a lack of ability to control his temper and had intentionally risked the life of another driver.

I applaud NASCAR for finally putting their foot down, however they have opened up a dangerous precedent here. In the future will all drivers who offer a little "payback" miss the next race? Obviously not. So where is that line exactly? NASCAR will need to be careful that their future penalties are consistent with this.

Since today is April 15th (tax day) I have to wonder, are fines paid to NASCAR tax deductible as a business expense? If so, Kevin Harvick should get a nice refund next year.