For drivers, 'be yourself' isn't as simple as it sounds (cont'd)

That kind of thing seems less likely to happen in NASCAR, given that corporations typically sign multi-year deals with teams and not drivers, and you'd hope the competitors are savvy enough to not wreck vehicles in their own driveway at 3 a.m. But it's still the man behind the wheel who essentially becomes a spokesperson, and he often has to amend his behavior as a result. When Stewart got involved in a physical altercation with a photographer at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2002, NASCAR fined him $10,000. His car sponsor at the time, The Home Depot, fined him $50,000. In terms of driver behavior, that nugget shows who's really in control.

2010 Cup Schedule

Track	Time (ET)	TV
Daytona	1 p.m.	FOX
Fontana	3 p.m.	FOX
Las Vegas	3 p.m.	FOX
Atlanta	1 p.m.	FOX
Bristol	1 p.m.	FOX
Martinsville	1 p.m.	FOX
Phoenix	7:30 p.m.	FOX
Texas	3 p.m.	FOX
Talladega	1 p.m.	FOX
Richmond	7:30 p.m.	FOX
Darlington	7:30 p.m.	FOX
Dover	1 p.m.	FOX
Charlotte	5:45 p.m.	FOX
Pocono	1 p.m.	TNT
Michigan	1 p.m.	TNT
Sonoma	3 p.m.	TNT
Loudon	1 p.m.	TNT
Daytona	7:30 p.m.	TNT
Chicago	7:30 p.m.	TNT
Indianapolis	1 p.m.	ESPN
Pocono	1 p.m.	ESPN
Watkins Glen	1 p.m.	ESPN
Michigan	1 p.m.	ESPN
Bristol	7:30 p.m.	ABC
Atlanta	7:30 p.m.	ESPN
Richmond	7:30 p.m.	ABC
Loudon	1 p.m.	ESPN
Dover	1 p.m.	ESPN
Kansas	1 p.m.	ESPN
Fontana	3 p.m.	ESPN
Charlotte	7:30 p.m.	ABC
Martinsville	1 p.m.	ESPN
Talladega	1 p.m.	ESPN
Texas	3 p.m.	ESPN
Phoenix	3 p.m.	ESPN
Homestead	1 p.m.	ESPN

"They keep saying, OK, we want these drivers to revert back to their personalities and all that. Well, NASCAR can only do so much about that. The sponsors have got to lighten up with this thing. Let the guys go, let them be who they are. It didn't hurt [Dale] Earnhardt with GM, it hasn't hurt Kyle Busch with his sponsor," said former race track promoter Humpy Wheeler, who now owns the consulting firm The Wheeler Co.

"Corporate behavior, that's probably the worst thing that ever happened in this sport. You don't want guys doing punk things, I'm not talking about that. But this corporate behavior stuff has gotten us to the point where it's made a lot of the drivers [seem like] they're boring when they're not. If they could forget about having to be corporately behaved, it would be a different thing."

Regardless of how much NASCAR relaxes rules relating to driver behavior, some drivers still have to adhere to stricter codes of conduct. Cover this sport long enough, and you come to realize that some sponsors can be overly sensitive, taking offense to comments or actions that might seem innocuous in and of themselves. But if you're paying $20 million to fund a car on NASCAR's premier series, you get plenty of leverage, and to a certain extent you have the power to dictate how your pitchman behaves in public.

Felix Sabates, minority car owner at Earnhardt Ganassi Racing who has fielded vehicles at NASCAR's top level since 1987, bemoans the current state of affairs, and remembers how it used to be.

"We need to give these guys boxing gloves and let them go beat up each other. That would sell tickets," said Sabates, perhaps only half-joking. "I love it. Let them go beat up somebody. Be competitive and have some fire. I'm friendly with 99 percent of drivers, but some are so vanilla, I want to thank everybody back at the shop. You don't have the ... free spirit of Kyle Petty. You don't have those guys anymore. You had guys who were good drivers and sold tickets. Ernie Irvan was one of those. A loud-mouthed obnoxious SOB, but people loved Ernie Irvan. Davey Allison was a feisty mother, and those guys aren't around anymore. You've got Kyle Busch. And maybe this new kid Keselowski. Name me another."

Stewart? "Stewart's not like that anymore," Sabates countered. "He's a car owner now. He wrecks the car, it costs him money. They think about that stuff. They don't want to wreck those cars, because they have pay to fix it. They don't have to go beat each other up. Maybe some chest-pushing. Like wrestling, those guys don't hurt each other. Just push each other around a little bit."

Maybe that's going a bit too far. To be fair, the argument that the entire Sprint Cup garage is vanilla is a little overblown. Even if Stewart has been mellowed by ownership, Busch, Keselowski, Hamlin, Juan Montoya, Scott Speed, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and even Jeff Gordon are all colorful and outspoken characters whose sponsors allow them plenty of leeway, and whose comments usually come across as genuine. And in all honesty, there are some drivers out there who are just more sedate by nature, and no amount of rule-relaxation is going to change that.

In the middle, though, are the drivers who present themselves a certain way in public to please the sponsors they represent. Truthfully, they're in a somewhat uneasy and unenviable position, having to toe a line of behavior like a politician running for office, no matter how charismatic or forthright NASCAR wishes them to become. And yet, we can all relate to having to adhere to workplace codes of conduct. In that way, despite their fame and riches, these drivers are just like everybody else.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.