NASCAR’s France: No fine for Keselowski’s comments

In an interview on Fox Business Network, NASCAR chairman Brian France has said that Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski would not be fined for his angry comments against the sanctioning body following Saturday’s NRA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

“That’s the beauty of NASCAR – we do allow the drivers to express themselves in that way, even if they say things that we disagree with,” France said. “I certainly disagree with everything that he said, but look, they’re frustrated, this is the most intense racing in the world. Not surprising that every once in a while, when things don’t go your way, you blow off a lot of steam.”

Keselowski attacked NASCAR for what he saw as unfair targeting of his Penske Racing team after finishing ninth in the race on Saturday night. He and teammate Joey Logano failed pre-race inspection and had the rear-end housings on both of their cars confiscated; Logano’s car was rolled onto the starting grid just before the field went out for their pace laps.

“The things I’ve seen over the last seven days have me questioning everything I believe in,” Keselowski said in his expletive-laced tirade.

After France commented on Keselowski, the Fox Business interviewer then brought up Denny Hamlin’s $25,000 fine earlier this season for critical comments against the new Generation-6 cars and asked France why he was fined and Keselowski would not be.

“The line that we draw is, you can’t criticize racing product,” France explained. “You can criticize our decisions, criticize everything else, which is more than any other sport might allow. But just don’t go talking about ‘Our racing product isn’t the best in the world,’ because it is.”