DAYTONA BEACH - Dale Earnhardt Jr. was hit Wednesday with a $10,000 fine and the loss of 25 Nextel Cup points for purposely causing a caution in Sunday's race at Bristol, Tenn.
Earnhardt had fallen behind with a tire problem and was in danger of going down a lap when he spun, bringing out a yellow flag that allowed him to pit for tires and stay on the lead lap during the Food City 500. He finished 11th.
After the spin, Earnhardt was heard telling his team on the radio that he had never spun on purpose before.
"The driver of the No. 8 car was quite vocal in admitting he intentionally spun out his car to cause a caution condition on the track, which is clearly prohibited in the NASCAR rule book," NASCAR president Mike Helton said. "We have several rules that have been in place for quite some time to prevent someone from altering the outcome of an event. This was a clearcut case of that."
Despite losing the 25 points, Earnhardt will go into Sunday's race at Texas Motor Speedway third in the standings. But he now trails leader Matt Kenseth by 66 points and runnerup Kurt Busch, the Bristol winner, by 45.
Teresa Earnhardt, owner of Earnhardt's Chevrolet, accepted NASCAR's decision.
"We regret what this has cost us in our pursuit of the Nextel Cup championship," she said in a statement. "In the heat of battle, a lot of things can happen and decisions can be made that come at a high cost. It was a mistake we've all learned from and we have to move past it."
McMURRAY FINED: Jamie McMurray was fined $10,000 by NASCAR and placed on probation until the end of August for spinning out Kenseth at Bristol.
On the final lap, Kenseth bumped past McMurray on the way to a fifth-place finish. McMurray recovered to finish eighth, then caught up with Kenseth after the checkered flag. He first rubbed along the side of Kenseth's car, then backed off and bumped him from the rear, sending Kenseth sliding sideways near the entrance to pit road.
JOURDAIN A CHAMP: The Champ Car series got a boost when driver Michel Jourdain Jr. landed a ride for this year.
Jourdain, retaining his sponsorship from Gigante, a department store chain from his native Mexico, will drive a second car for the RuSport team. The team recently announced it was moving up from the Toyota Atlantic series with rookie A.J. Allmendinger, the Atlantic champion.
Jourdain, 27, decided to stay behind when Bobby Rahal and David Letterman announced recently they were taking their team to the rival Indy Racing League.
Jourdain said Champ Car, the former CART series, was more to his liking because of its mix of street, road and oval races. The IRL is an all-oval series.
Jourdain, starting his ninth season in Champ Car, got his first two victories in 2003 and finished a career-best third in points.
INDY FIELD GROWS: Five more teams filed paperwork to enter the Indianapolis 500, bringing to 14 the number of drivers entered in the May 30 race.
A.J. Foyt Enterprises and the Ganassi, Kelley, Mo Nunn and Dreyer & Reinbold teams filed before Wednesday's midnight deadline. Ganassi, Foyt and Kelley each entered four cars.
Second-year Indy driver Scott Dixon will drive Ganassi's No. 1 car and will be joined by rookie Darren Manning. A.J. Foyt IV, who finished 18th last year as a rookie, will drive for his grandfather, and Kelley Racing filed for Scott Sharp and Sarah Fisher.
VIEWING PLEASURE: Racing has become a popular venue for movie and TV studios to advertise new releases, but Lions Gate Entertainment is carrying it a step farther.
The independent film studio is the primary sponsor this season on the Toyota Funny Car of Jim Head and an associate sponsor on AK Motorsport teammate Jerry Toliver's car in the NHRA.
This weekend in Las Vegas, the cars will carry the logo of The Punisher, a film starring Thomas Jane and John Travolta that was filmed in the Tampa Bay area and is scheduled for release April 16.
The company also placed The Punisher on the Dodge driven by rookie Brendan Gaughan in Sunday's Nextel Cup race at Bristol.
