Tony Stewart supports NASCAR's fines, but cites 'poor judgment' on certain penalties

Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) co-owner Tony Stewart is a supporter of the over $1 million in fines NASCAR has issued this season for technical violations — including the $250,000 fine handed down to the No. 14 SHR racing team of Chase Briscoe for counterfeiting a part on the race car.

“Honestly, I’m supportive of the amount of fines,” Stewart recently told Dustin Long of NBC Sports. “I think if you want to get it under control, you’ve got to keep bumping it up to where it’s risk vs. reward. What are you willing to risk to get in the gray areas?

“I support NASCAR on that side. I feel like they’ve done a good job of trying to discourage teams from going above and beyond. But the mindset on some of these aspects are absolutely ludicrous. Some of these penalties have been justified and some of them, I feel like, have been extremely in poor judgment. But it’s not our series. We’re not the sanctioning body. They have to run the series the way they feel like it needs to be run.”

Elton Sawyer, senior vice president of competition, said earlier this month that NASCAR has been handing down large penalties and fines/suspensions in an effort to steer teams away from designing their own parts on the Next Gen car.

“The culture that was in our garage and our race teams shops on the Gen 6 car was more of a manufacturing facility. The Next Gen car – that’s not the business model,” Sawyer said, via Motorsport. “The race teams – and they’re doing a better job, but we still have a lot of work to do – they have to change that culture within the walls of the race shop.”

Tony Stewart in favor of hefty fines, NASCAR will continue to enforce

NASCAR came down especially hard on Hendrick Motorsports earlier this season. Following the March 12 Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway, NASCAR docked the No. 5, 9, 24 and 48 Cup Series teams of Hendrick 100 owners points and playoff points and handed out $100,000 fines. The $400,000 total fine for Hendrick was the largest fine given out to a team in NASCAR history. 

NASCAR had confiscated the hood louvers from all four cars prior to the March 10 practice. NASCAR allowed the cars to practice before taking the parts back to R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, for further examination. The National Motorsports Appeals Panel later ruled to amend the L2-level penalties, restoring the owners and playoff points.

Sawyer said that NASCAR will continue to be diligent in being the “custodians of the garage.”

“We would much rather be talking about the phenomenal racing than about penalties,” Sawyer said. “But for us to keep this car in the box it needs to be in, we as a sanctioning body need to stay on top of it. We’re the custodians of the garage. We’re the custodians of this car. What we have to continue to do – and we will – is to continue to show the garage that we will not get lazy.

“We will continue to bring cars back to the R&D Center. We will continue to look at them and we’ll continue to write penalties if they continue to do the things they are doing.”