Press Snoop: Earnhardt busted!

the latest news from around the world, courtesy of press snoop Lynne Huntting

NASCAR lowered the boom on DALE EARNHARDT Jr on Tuesday and disproved, at least for now, that he is shown any favouritism.

Junior received the same penalty for saying the 'S' word on live TV that was imposed on other NASCAR drivers in other series - most recently, JOHNNY SAUTER and RON HORNADAY Jr in the Busch Series. They were all fined $25,000 and penalised those ever important 25 championship points. Tuesday's penalty makes Little E the shortest-lived Championship leader - less than 48 hours between his jumping to the top of the charts to being reduced to second place, twelve points behind new leader KURT BUSCH.

And the penalty for Earnhardt's "inappropriate post-race comments" goes equally to Earnhardt's team, DEI, which also drops from first to second place in the Owner standings. The official transgression is violation of the infamous Section 12-4-A of the NASCAR Rule Book - "actions detrimental to stock car racing-inappropriate language."

Earnhardt and DEI drop from 5,543 points to 5,518, while Busch and Roush move up to 5,530 points. Earnhardt has appealed.

Monday night, before the penalty box was opened, DAVE DESPAIN and ROBIN MILLER had an interesting discourse on the subject - that NASCAR was damned if it did and damned if it didn't. NASCAR president MIKE HELTON came up with the idea of points and fines for transgressors using GEORGE CARLIN's Seven Bad Words on live broadcasts. Miller said Helton would have to join the Witness Protection Program to escape the irate fans. Despain said the penalties for bad language should hit the driver where it hurts the most - free time. Make the transgressor serve a full day doing community service, such as visiting a Children's Hospital for an entire day, and make it far away and inconvenient. And if not served, the driver misses the next race.

There are all kinds of opinions on what has happened and/or what should happen. Among the views I've already heard are:

* Drivers/teams need to be responsible for their words and actions;
* NASCAR was consistent;
* Fining doesn't matter because it's chump change to the driver;
* Earnhardt didn't lie, he didn't cheat;
* Taking away points for a non-racing incident isn't right;
* Taking away points penalises the whole team, which did nothing wrong.

Penalties should happen on the spot so the fans and media know immediately who stands where in the results and/or standings. In-race and post-race live broadcasts are immediately available for review. Most people had figured out that Junior was in trouble before the end of the live TV race broadcast, but had to wait two days to learn if he was still on top or not.

All future NASCAR broadcasts use the 'bleep button' or 'seven-second delay'.

How long before drivers skip Victory Circle for fear of the 'Speech Police'? JEFF GORDON has already shown one can skip Victory Circle bottle/advertiser problems by celebrating on the track, and apologising afterwards.

NASCAR created a lot of buzz with its new points system - which lasted through the last race before The Chase To the Cup at Richmond International Raceway. The ratings for that show were higher this year than in previous years. But since Richmond the TV ratings have fallen - noticeably. The TV ratings for the NASCAR Nextel Cup EA Sports 500 Race at Talladega Superspeedway fell 2.1 per cent from last year's 4.7 overnight rating. This year it drew a 4.6 overnight and a nine share in the Nielsens. Last year the Talladega race drew a 5.5 overnight with a 12 share, a rating NASCAR said was the highest rating of any auto race against professional football.