Petty Voices Support for Hamlin’s Refusal to Pay NASCAR Fine

Kyle Petty - Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR

SPEED analyst and former driver Kyle Petty today said he supports Denny Hamlin’s refusal to pay the $25,000 fee levied against him by NASCAR for his post-race comments at Phoenix that the sanctioning body claim “denigrate the racing product.”

Following are Petty’s comments:

“I’m going to stand behind Denny on this one.  Just because it’s NASCAR’s ball and their ballpark and they make the rules doesn’t necessarily mean that there can be censorship, and there appears to be a lot of censorship in this fine.  NASCAR wants drivers to have personalities and character and to express themselves but only if they say positive and not negative things.  I don’t know anyone who can do that.

“I’m going to buy me a Denny Hamlin hat and t-shirt because drivers should stick up for themselves.   It’s hard to believe that this sport has come to this where we fine drivers for comments.  Whatever happened to fining drivers for big motors and illegal bodies and cheating on the track? Now it appears they don’t have a right to have an opinion off the race track.

I could not survive in this sport as a driver at this time. I’d be paying a fine every week.  I’d be broke.

“But here’s the way it works:  It’s NASCAR’s ball, their ballpark, their rules and if you want to play, you gotta pay.  You can stand up and blow smoke and hot air all you want, but somebody’s going to have to pay that fine if it comes down to that or it’s going to have to be appealed and overturned.”

Source: SPEED, Press Release

The article Petty Voices Support for Hamlin’s Refusal to Pay NASCAR Fine is from Catchfence.

Source: http://www.catchfence.com/2013/sprintcup/03/07/petty-voices-support-for-hamlins-refusal-to-pay-nascar-fine/

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