Jamie McMurray said he was stunned by NASCAR’s $25,000 fine for bumping with Kevin Harvick in the final moments of Sunday’s Talladega 500. Harvick was initially angry because he thought McMurray had triggered a late crash, and he bumped McMurray hard under the yellow. McMurray said he tried, during that part of the race, to ask Harvick what the problem was. The incident was triggered when David Gilliland squeezed McMurray up the track and into Tony Stewart, but that wasn’t evident to the men involved until they saw the replays.
“I didn’t think anything happened bad enough that would have called for a penalty or a fine,” McMurray said. “I didn’t think it was that severe.
“I’d already called Tony Monday, and he was like ‘Hey, I’m not mad.’ And I called Kevin and asked ‘Why are you all fired up?’ And Kevin was like ‘Aw, I’m sorry. I thought you caused that wreck, and I just got hotheaded and lost it for a second. But I’m not mad.’
“Then I told Kevin ‘But it cost us $25,000 apiece,’ and he didn’t believe it.
“When Kevin first hit me, I didn’t know if he was joking or what, because I hadn’t done anything to Kevin. So I was trying to get up in of Kevin and put my hand out and ask ‘What are you doing?’
“But NASCAR thought I was swerving back at Kevin. I told NASCAR I wasn’t even mad at Kevin so I wasn’t swerving.
“John Darby (NASCAR’s Cup director) just said ‘What’s done is done,’ and I’ve agreed to accept that.”
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Nascar needs to just leave them alone.
yes they do, that did NOT even come close to warranting a fine
but they (NASCAR) can and will do what they want when they want weve all seen it time and time again
Now that I hear the details I don’t think McMurray should be receiving the same penalty. Probation for either of them sounds excessive, but a fine for Harvick doesn’t seem unreasonable. Its 25 grand, no big deal for him. I’m sure he’ll make it worth his 25 grand the next time he slams into someone under caution. Plus, from what I understand all the money from the penalties goes into some kind of fund that NASCAR doesn’t get to keep anyway.
I don’t wanna ruffle any feathers but I remember Jeff Gordon smashing Robby Gordon’s rear end in at Loudon under caution a few years back. I don’t remember NASCAR doing anything but throwing a black flag at Jeff who at that time had just clenched his 4th championship. Even if they did fine Jeff, which I’m pretty sure they didn’t, I think the penalty should have been more severe to Jeff in the position he was in than these guys. NASCAR is blatantly inconsistent (that’s a fact).
nascar is just getting fake it really is….preordained
this shit is stupid. wats next? penalties for scraping sponsor logos off the walls when u crash?? its wat jeff said. nascar is getting fake.
an by the way axel.. nascar never fined jeff for hitting robby. they penalized him 1 lap after the fact that he was already 2 or 3 down already.
Just let them race, NASCAR is just out of control, it is almost like they are not making money from all the official monopolies, so they fine drivers for driving.