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 Tony Stewart, who was fined by NASCAR last week for questioning
the sanctioning body's commitment to safety, will pay the $35,000 on
his own and donate the money given to him by fellow drivers to
charity.
The nine-member NASCAR Sprint Cup Drivers Council decided to give
the money to Stewart to pay his fine. The members of the 2016
council are Stewart, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin,
Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson and Joey
Logano.
Stewart, a three-time champion who is retiring as a driver after
this season, blasted NASCAR for its lack of a lug nut policy and for
being lax on safety.
NASCAR stopped requiring teams to put all five lug nuts on its
wheels at the start of last season. With officials no longer in
every pit box, NASCAR said it was up to the teams whether they
should put all five lug nuts on the wheel or not.
 Five days after Stewart's comments, NASCAR sent a memo to crew
chiefs Monday afternoon and changed the rule.
Teams will now be required to have all five lug nuts "installed in a
safe and secure manner" or have the driver risk being called back
into the pits during the race.
Stewart said Wednesday that the $35,000 from the Drivers Council
will go to Autism Delaware, founded by NASCAR on Fox coordinating
director Artie Kempner. Stewart's fine also will end up going to
charity as fines collected by NASCAR go to its NASCAR Foundation.
"I appreciated the Drivers Council support, but I didn't want them
to pay the fine. We decided as a group to donate the money to
charity," Stewart said in a statement. "Artie is such a good friend
to all of us and his foundation does a lot of great work."
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Stewart last week said, "I guarantee you that envelope is going to
keep getting pushed until somebody gets hurt. You will not have
heard a rant that's going to be as bad as what's going to come out
of my mouth if a driver gets hurt because of a loose wheel that
hurts one of them. ... This is not a game you play with safety and
that's exactly the way I feel like NASCAR is treating this. This is
not the way to do this."
Last Sunday's race at Richmond was Stewart's first race of 2016 upon
his return from offseason back injury. He started 18th and suffered
a flat tire while a lap down on lap 268. He got back on the lead lap
with the free pass during a caution with 75 laps to go and finished
19th.
"We just think that there should be a little bit of leniency there
for someone that knows a lot about our sport and has been in our
sport a long time," Hamlin said Friday of Stewart being fined. "He
gave his opinion, and especially when it's something on safety, too,
I think it's pretty important."
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