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Dale Earnhardt Jr . has to earn his 25 points back on the track. Unless Kurt Busch 's well-scripted dialogue suddenly gets salty, that is.
The National Stock Car Racing Commission upheld NASCAR's $10,000, 25-point penalty levied against Earnhardt for cursing during a live postrace television interview on Oct.3.
A three-person committee, chaired by George Silbermann , ruled Monday that the penalty was consistent with others issued by NASCAR for language infractions, and held Earnhardt to a standard consistent with being an "ambassador of the sport and a role model for young people."
Earnhardt and his director of competition, Richie Gilmore , argued the case in person. Gilmore has 10 days to appeal again to the commissioner, but will not do so, he said.
After finishing third at Charlotte on Saturday, Earnhardt is second in points, 24 behind Busch, who finished fourth. Earnhardt used a profane word during a celebration after winning for the fifth time at Talladega.
"We felt like we had a good argument based on the fact that it's not fair to make up 25 points in a 10-race Chase for the Championship format versus making up 25 points during the first 26 races," Gilmore said in a statement on the team Web site. "Our two big issues were that it was something that didn't happen on the race track and we were already in Victory Lane. No other sport takes points off the board after the game is over.
"We also felt that NASCAR and the commission should look at the Chase portion of the season and break it down to an eight or 10-point penalty. We felt like it was a lot to ask, of any team, to make up 25 points in a 10-race format that could, possibly, decide a championship."
KEEP GOING: Team owner Ray Evernham said Saturday that he hopes to run semiretired Bill Elliott 10-12 times in the No.91 Dodge in 2005. Races in California, Texas, Indianapolis and Charlotte are confirmed, with two more to be announced in November.
Evernham wants the No.91 Dodge eventually to become a full-time team, but will not phase another driver in until 2006.
"Bill only wants to do 12 at the most," Evernham said. "I could probably talk him into doing 15 if we could get some sponsorship. If the 91 goes full time with another driver, I'll probably run Bill in another car. It's just a matter of how long Bill wants to run."
CROSSOVER: Felix Sabates , who co-owns a three-car Nextel Cup team with Chip Ganassi , thinks the creation of NASCAR Mexico and the running of a Busch Series race in Mexico City in the spring will convert that country's fans from open-wheel to stock car buffs.
The creation of a new NASCAR-supervised Desafio Corona series should also make Mexico a prime ground for teams seeking minority drivers for developmental programs, he said.
"There are a lot of drivers in Mexico who need to be discovered," said Sabates, who is of Cuban descent. "The Corona Series will be NASCAR's series in Mexico. A lot of these young drivers will be a farm team to come to America one day."
GOOD PRESS: Eric Wright , vice president of research and development for Joyce Julius, a firm that analyzes sponsor value in sports, said companies can get their money's worth in NASCAR, even if their race car is not doing well. Controversy can help, too, he said.
Although the exposure Robby Gordon 's sponsor earned during his bumping controversy at Loudon, N.H., was negative, it still put the product on television screens.
"If what's happening is a hot-button item, we know sponsors cringe and prefer not to have it," Wright said. "But there is some afterlife that once the sting wears off you still get some publicity and maybe it's not the worst situation to be in."
SPARK PLUGS: A new Busch Series team, co-owned by an unidentified Division I college coach and a Nextel Cup driver, is scheduled to announce its plans for 2005 today. Speculation has Kentucky men's basketball coach Tubby Smith involved. He would be the second Wildcats coach to dabble in racing, though Rick Pitino preferred horses.