Columnist Brian Hildrebrand: NASCAR needs to send Spencer to the bench

Brian Hildrebrand

Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2002 | 9:52 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Unless NASCAR president Mike Helton wants his Winston Cup Series to devolve into a 200-mile-per-hour version of professional wrestling, there should be one driver forced to watch Sunday's race at Watkins Glen International from the sidelines.

Earlier this season, Helton took the unprecedented step of sitting down Kevin Harvick for a Winston Cup race after Harvick intentionally wrecked Coy Gibbs during a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway.

Harvick was penalized not for merely spinning out Gibbs, but for announcing over his radio that he was going to do it. Bad form.

Jimmy Spencer displayed equally bad form in blatantly wrecking Las Vegas' Kurt Busch early in Sunday's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. If NASCAR is to be consistent in its application of the rules (which would be a first), Helton needs to bench Spencer this weekend.

Although Spencer tried to write off the incident as a "racing deal," there was no mistaking the move was a payback for a similar move Busch put on Spencer to win the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway in March.

Like Harvick did with Gibbs, Spencer announced that Busch would pay for bumping Spencer out of the lead.

"Kurt Busch just smashed right into me, and that's OK; I never forget," Spencer said after the Bristol race. "The only thing is when I smash back, he won't finish."

Busch didn't finish Sunday's race -- although he clearly had a car that could have contended for the win. After starting 38th, Busch had moved up 21 spots into 17th place in only 30 laps. After Busch passed Spencer for 16th place on lap 35, Spencer tapped Busch's left-rear bumper going into the third corner and sent Busch spinning into the outside wall.

"I don't know if something broke on his car or what," Spencer said in a weak defense of the incident. "He just slowed down immediately and I bumped him. I sure didn't mean to, you know."

A NASCAR spokeswoman said that Helton would meet with both drivers and their car owners before the two are allowed to practice Friday at Watkins Glen.

If Helton has a backbone, only one of those drivers will be getting any seat time this weekend.

A writer with the Associated Press reported that Stewart punched freelance photographer Gary Mook "several times" while he was attempting to take Stewart's photo after the race but Mook said the incident was "totally blown out of proportion."

"It was just one punch," said Mook, who was on assignment for the Indianapolis Star.

Mook and Gibbs had a lengthy discussion near Stewart's transporter after the race and the two were seen exchanging business cards following the meeting.

"I talked to the gentleman (Mook) and feel confident we don't have a problem here," Gibbs said. "We had a good discussion. That's all I really want to say about it."

Stewart was fined $10,000 and placed on probation last year after he knocked a tape recorder out of a reporter's hand and kicked it under a hauler following the Pepsi 400 at Daytona.

A NASCAR spokesperson said series officials would talk to the parties involved before deciding whether to take action against Stewart.5MOTOR SPORTS TUESDAY: NASCAR