Tony Stewart can't be a big fan of the word "detrimental".

The word has been slapped on Stewart multiple times in his career in the form of a NASCAR penalty because the sanctioning body nearly always includes Rule 12-4-A "Actions detrimental to stock car racing" for every violation of the rule book.

And even in the case of USAC penalties, Tony Stewart can't avoid it there either as that sanctioning body's vice president of racing operations called Stewart's most recent actions "unacceptable behavior detrimental to the sport" Monday afternoon.

The incident last Thursday night at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis brought the two-time Sprint Cup champion a $10,000 fine and probation.

Of course, he's probably pretty used to that probation thing.

He also will buy the series brand new radios and uniforms for the officials.

The penalties come from Stewart's temper, as he got tremendously irritated after USAC failed to allow the midget car he owns of Tracey Hines back on the race track in time to avoid going a lap down during an event at the half-mile track that preceded the Craftsman Truck Series and Nationwide Series events at the track.

FanHouse's Geoffrey Miller is on location & blogging away at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday's 15th Running of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

Friday morning, word got out that NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Tony Stewart was in some kind of altercation at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis during a Midget race involving a race team that he owns.

Stewart was alleged to have gotten extremely heated at USAC race officials after his car, driven by Tracey Hines, was forced to a go a lap down after officials had deemed the team had taken too long to repair the car prior to the green flag coming out.

The result of Stewart's anger has now been made available online thanks to an Indianapolis television station, WTHR-13, who received the homemade video from a fan who was in the grandstands that night.

The video, which is only 0:46 seconds long, clearly shows an irate Stewart yelling directly in the face of a USAC official. At that point, Stewart hadn't done anything wrong, and its quite normal to see an irritated crew member getting after it with an official in the racing world -- just like an umpire and a baseball manager would do.

Unfortunately, though, Stewart doesn't stop there, appearing to jab his finger into the USAC official's chest before ripping off his headset and throwing it to the ground. Stewart then appears to storm away from the official before confronting another official and pushing him backwards.

FanHouse's Geoffrey Miller is on location & blogging away at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday's 15th Running of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.



15 extra horsepower or not, Kyle Busch -- or more precisely Joe Gibbs Racing -- is still the Nationwide Series competition's biggest threat, as they showed Saturday night at Indianapolis' O'Reilly Raceway Park.

Busch led 197 of 200 laps to win the Kroger 200 Benefiting Riley Hospital for Children at the half-mile flat short track just five miles from the site of Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

FanHouse's Geoffrey Miller is on-location at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday's 15th Running of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

Hendrick Motorsports is running strong at Indianapolis.

Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon put their Chevrolets away Friday afternoon at the Brickyard with the Top-2 speeds overall of both Friday practices in preparation for Saturday's run for the pole.

In the heat of the afternoon, Johnson and Gordon were the only two drivers to overtake the 180 mph mark, with Johnson setting the pace with a lap of 180.047mph and Gordon following closely behind at 180.007 mph.

Elliott Sadler in his No. 19 Dodge paced the first practice session with a lap of 179.190mph.

There was just one incident in the two afternoon practice sessions as Sam Hornish Jr. -- more known at Indy for his 2006 Indianapolis 500 victory -- looped his No. 77 in the short chute between turns 1 & 2 without any damage.

Tony Stewart may have been announcing his new car with Stewart-Haas Racing Friday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but his actions Thursday night at O'Reilly Raceway Park might become a bigger story later this weekend.

Stewart, according to many online reports and at least a handful of NASCAR beat writers Friday morning at IMS, first knocked a radio headset off the head of a USAC (United States Auto Club) official and then shoved him during a pit road confrontation at ORP.

From the Anderson (Ind.) Herald Bulletin:

Stewart, the two-time Sprint Cup champion, owns the midget cars of Tracy Hines and Levi Jones. Hines entered Thursday's race as the points leader and was running in the top four when he brushed the outside wall on a restart on the eighth circuit

Hines' crew attempted to change a right rear flat tire and get Hines back into the race before another restart. As the crew pushed the car to the front of the straightaway, a USAC official indicated they were too late.

First, we need something to cause every race fan to get chills of excitement:



The boys (and girls) are back in (my) town. And man, isn't that music on the video just awesome?

Yep, racing has returned to Indianapolis in the form of stock car racing for the 15th-straight year as the Sprint Cup Series lights up the engines Friday afternoon for the first practice session teams will be given to get prepared for Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

Wednesday afternoon, news started spilling out that was music to the ears of Clint Bowyer, Carl Edwards, and a vast number of fans as NASCAR took a step to decrease Toyota's horsepower by releasing a technical bulletin to all Nationwide Series teams saying:

"At all Events, unless otherwise specified, all engines with a cylinder bore spacing less than 4.470 inches must compete using a tapered spacer with four (4) 1.125-inch diameter holes."

"At all Events, unless otherwise specified, all engines with a cylinder bore spacing of 4.470 inches or more must compete using a tapered spacer with four (4) 1.100-inch diameter holes. Unless otherwise authorized, the carburetor restrictor will be issued by NASCAR."

Notice among all that technical jargon that there was never a mention of Toyota or the engines that Toyota Racing Development currently competes with. However, the only engine with "cylinder bore spacing of 4.470 inches or more" is the Toyota engine that so many people have cried foul about this season.

Of course, that engine has found victory lane 14 times in 21 races, and if you ask Bowyer, it's fast enough that a monkey could win with it.

Jason Leffler drove Toyota to victory lane for the first time in the NASCAR Busch Series after a nail-biting finish at O'Reilly Raceway Park. Fellow Toyota drivers David Reutimann and Mike Bliss gave the manufacturer a top 10 trifecta with their 3rd and 9th place finishes.

I've never been a huge fan of Leffler or the #38 team, but I was ecstatic about their win today, which makes for five top 5s and eight top 10s on the season. That team has struggled for the past several years--they lost Kasey Kahne to Evernham Motorsports, Shane Hmiel to drugs and several cars to the wall, many of them put there by Anthony Foyt IV. Speaking of Hmiel, he holds the record at ORP for most laps led by a non-winner (153).

What made Leffler's win even more exciting is that he is only the second non-Cup driver to win a Busch race this season (not counting Aric Almirola). But any race fan who skips Busch races thinking they aren't worth watching because of the Buschwhacking missed out on some fantastic racing today.

Until recently, I don't imagine Martin ever thought he'd ever be driving for Dale Earnhardt Inc. I sure didn't. And I certainly never thought he'd be driving for DEI in the Craftsman Truck Series, but that's what they reported tonight on "NASCAR Now" tonight.

After confirming the uncertainty of Regan Smith's future, it was mentioned that DEI will run two Busch teams and possibly a truck team with Martin behind the wheel. No idea if that means that DEI is acquiring the Ginn truck that Smith is racing this weekend at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

I do believe that this is Martin's dream situation--to be able to run a full-time season in the truck series--for the "fun" of it--as well as a part-time Cup season--for the cash.

Whatever else he was thinking about the "merger," Martin had to have been thrilled with this development. Speaking of Martin's thoughts... I've been dying to hear them. He has been outspoken about his confidence in Ginn, but I have to wonder if the firing of three drivers, two veterans like himself and a rookie he personally mentored, wrenched his gut a little.

Update: Mark Martin speaks: "It's not something I ever dreamed of happening."