Asked by NASCAR broadcaster NBC about the significance of his fifth victory at Talladega, Earnhardt said, "It don't mean s--- right now. Daddy's won here 10 times."

Profanity police?

Debate over NASCAR's stance on questionable language still fierce

On one of the most historic days in NASCAR's 56-year existence, not a single stock car was on any racetrack in the United States.

In fact, that day's ripple effects still are being felt everywhere -- from the NASCAR offices, to television networks' headquarters to the garage area.

The date? Feb. 1, 2004 -- Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl.

The performance that changed everything -- even for NASCAR. Credit: Andy Lyons/Getty Images

"Janet Jackson's boob turned the whole world around," says FOX and SPEED NASCAR analyst Larry McReynolds.

An understatement to be sure. Stricter guidelines from the Federal Communications Commission and a need by NASCAR to protect its broadcast partners have led to fines and loss of championship points for several teams.

All the while, TV networks are allowed -- with wide-open microphones -- just about everywhere on the racetrack grounds.

"There's very few places for people to hide," says NASCAR on FOX producer Neil Goldberg. "We are allowed to step behind the lines and into the locker rooms sometimes and frustration does spill out."

Drivers like Tony Stewart understand NASCAR's position, but hope that one day its perspective will change.

"I think there's a point in time where it's going to go too far, and everybody's going to have to take a step back and say, 'There's part of this that is going to happen.'" Says Stewart.

Meanwhile, NASCAR says drivers and teams should get used to watching their language.

"We are going to do what we feel is necessary to preserve the integrity of the sport," says NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston.

The debate continues throughout the NASCAR community: Is the sport compromising its personality in an effort to stay squeaky clean?

Setting the precedent

The Federal Communications Commission began a heavy crackdown on broadcast indecency almost immediate after the Super Bowl incident, resulting in several high-profile fines levied against broadcast firms. The most well known being fines in excess of $2 million against Clear Channel Communications for indecency complaints against radio hosts Howard Stern and "Bubba the Love Sponge."

NASCAR took notice. Three weeks after the "wardrobe malfunction," in late February at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, NASCAR president Mike Helton addressed competitors at both the Busch Series and Nextel Cup drivers' meetings, imploring all to watch their mouths when on the air.

Not surprisingly, some drivers tested the policy and found out the sanctioning body wasn't fooling around.

Johnny Sauter got docked points and fined after a slipup during a radio interview in Las Vegas. Credit: Autostock

The first offenses flew a bit under most fans' radar screens. On March 6, Busch Series driver Johnny Sauter was docked 25 points and fined $10,000 for use of inappropriate language in a broadcast interview following a race at Las Vegas.

Two months later, Ron Hornaday got the same punishment following a radio interview at Dover.

As it turns out, both point deductions had little impact on the final Busch Series championship standings. Sauter was 18th ;Hornaday finished fourth.

However, on the Cup side, things got a bit more serious in October.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was celebrating his fifth career Talladega win in Victory Lane when he was asked by NBC's Matt Yocum what it meant to have five Talladega victories.

"It don't mean s--- right now. Daddy's won here 10 times," was Junior's response to a live national TV audience.

It didn't take long for NASCAR's hammer to fall on the No. 8 team. Two days after the incident, Earnhardt Jr. got the identical punishment as Hornaday and Sauter. Before the penalty, Earnhardt Jr. was the championship leader. After the penalty, he trailed eventual champion Kurt Busch by 12 points.

By the end of the week, sides were taken.

Big-time bleepDale Earnhardt Jr. makes history in Victory Lane at Talladega Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

"I think we're the only sport that takes points off of the board after they've been scored," laments DEI director of competition Richie Gilmore after the penalty is announced. "The popularity of this sport is based on colorful personalities and the fact that everyone can relate to these drivers and their emotions. Now, it seems like that's a detriment."

Days later, Tony Stewart voices his concern that personality is being taken away from the sport.

"What he said didn't cheat anybody on the racetrack," Stewart tells The Associated Press. "It didn't have any effect on how the race was run. That [penalty] can have an effect on millions of dollars and how their sponsors have to handle this now, and the pressure it has put on their team. It's been totally unfair to him and his race team."

"What's going to be the next thing?" he asks. "If we don't show up to the car for practice on time, are we going to lose 25 points for that next? Where is it realistically going to end?"

NBC, TNT and MRN each institute delays of different lengths the next weekend at Kansas. In the end, NASCAR sticks to its guns and the precedent set by the Hornaday and Sauter penalties.

What's more, the point loss has little effect on the final season standings; Junior finishes fifth.

Putting a finger on it

Just when the obscenity debate dies down, it gets stirred up again when Shane Hmiel is caught giving Dale Jarrett the bird on FX's coverage of the Busch Series race at Bristol in March.

After the penalty is announced, Jeff Burton expresses concern that Hmiel's penalty is very different from the ones given to Junior, Hornaday and Sauter last season.

Birds are singingHmiel and Jarrett get into it after the checkers at Bristol Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

"I feel that we've got Pandora's Box open pretty big on this one," says Burton. "I didn't have any problem last year on the deal with Junior. [NASCAR] warned us and said this is what's going to happen. It happened and they said exactly what they said they were going to do," Burton said. "But this is spontaneity.

"We go in the Tunnel Turn at Pocono and I get into [Ricky Rudd] and my in-car camera shows him flipping me off, and he gets penalized, that's tough."

It also seems to give television producers a lot of power on raceday. FOX's Goldberg says that responsibility is something he and his crew are aware of.

"We have to be conscious of it. The FCC makes us conscious of it now because there are ramifications going back to other incidents that have happened."

To that end, Goldberg said his crew does a lot to put the odds more in the drivers' favor.

NASCAR on FOX producer Neil Goldberg says he and crew are well aware of the importance of situations on the racetrack.

"While we like drama and excitement, we don't want to put that stuff out on television," says Goldberg. "We don't want to put anyone in a bad position. I try to do a telecast that my 16- and 13-year-old will watch.

"We think about it in the truck, we look at the situation. We know that we're catching drivers come out of incidents on the track and we're careful to let them know that we're going to them live."

Marty Snider, a pit reporter on NBC/TNT's coverage, says he also tells potential subjects that they will be on the air live.

"I like to do it, just to let them know that they're going to a big audience, not to tell them what to say, but I think it's just a good idea."

One thing that Goldberg and his crew did during its half of the season this year was to show drivers replays of any incident on the air. Goldberg said the practice was successful.

"It's happened a few times this year where a driver thought something happened and they see a replay on the pit monitors with the pit reporter and they see, well, it wasn't his fault. It was a whole different thing that happened."

That doesn't mean that good television isn't a priority.

"We want to capture the human drama and human nature of the sport, but we don't want to sanitize it, either," says Goldberg.

As far as the Hmiel situation itself, Goldberg said the presence of an in-car camera didn't make Hmiel get fined and lose points.

EMAIL Want to join the debate? Send writer Mark Spoor your take on the subject.

"A competitor letting that get the better of him to take that kind of action and make that kind of gesture, it's going to be captured on any number of 30 cameras that we have around the track.

"That's just a matter of anger management," he continued. "We can't just turn cameras off and wait until a competitor decides how he's going to act."

Stewart, who has had a bit of a checkered past with television cameras, says NASCAR drivers are held to a higher standard than most other athletes.

"We're humans in there and we're in the heat of the battle," says Stewart. "You don't have microphones on hockey players when they're out there, or football players, you don't hear them jawing at each other."

Reality TV

Darrell Waltrip, one of FOX and SPEED's commentators and a three-time Cup champion, has always likened the broadcast to a reality show and has said that he, McReynolds and play-by-play man Mike Joy are just reacting to what they see on the track.

McReynolds just hopes that the reality of NASCAR remains on the broadcast.

"Our sport is pretty squeaking clean," says McReynolds. "And I know that we don't want to be like the WWE, but I don't want us to lose the passion.

"We've got to find that balance."

Snider says even more than language, the real power television has on NASCAR is the power of persuasion.

"I think the biggest thing that TV can do is sway public opinion and public opinion builds NASCAR racing. You can really get a good gauge on things if you throw them out to the public."

Stewart agrees.

	ALSO Larry McReynolds knows a little something about cursing on live television. The year was 1989 and he was serving as Ricky Rudd's crew chief.  •   Complete story,  click here

"The stuff that NASCAR fans are able to see is something that makes our sport unique and special. Hopefully, it won't get to the point where you lose the human element of the equation."

Poston says even with the tougher regulations, NASCAR still has plenty of emotion -- and even uses Stewart as an example.

"What Tony Stewart has done the past few weeks after he's won, [climbing the fences at Daytona and New Hampshire], that shows plenty of emotion," says Poston. "The confrontation [between Kevin Harvick and Joe Nemechek] at the All-Star Challenge, that showed emotion.

"Drivers show emotion and they do get heated," he says. "That's part of the sport."

NASCAR meets with the television producers each week, and Poston notes there's never any talk about how the producers need to do their jobs.

"We need to be able to let them do what they do," he says. "We're not going to get to the point where we're micromanaging them."

But ...

"The environment has changed," says Poston. "We need to help protect our broadcast partners. As the environment has changed, so have we."