I suppose when U.S. open wheel racing was divided between IRL & CART you could say that CART car owners could indirectly levy fines and suspensions to drivers because of the makeup of that series.
Can you imagine if NASCAR drivers were allowed to levy fines and/or suspensions against other drivers? Would Dale Earnhardt, Sr. ever have driven enough races to win even one Championship? How about Kurt Busch? Would the other NASCAR drivers have sat Rowdy down or Smoke?
Back in 1958, Jimmy Carver , promoter of the Fredericksburg Speedway in Virginia let the drivers and owners vote on how or whether to penalize driver Al Grinnan after an on track incident. The clip below is from the July 9, 1958 Fredericksburg Free Lance Star :
Al Grinnan, who I knew as a friendly, laughing, mild mannered sort in his later years had a little more temper on the track in the 50s, it appears.
Three years earlier, in August 1955, Grinnan and his car owner Richard Rosson , proprietor of Rosson's Garage, had their feathers ruffled by the same Fredericksburg track promoter, Jimmy Carver, who'd advertised Grinnan's appearance at that weekend's race in the ad below:
However, a sports story in that same day's Fredericksburg newspaper - August 25, 1955 - told of Grinnan's car owner, Richard Rosson withdrawing the car and the reason why.
Seems rivalry between tracks for cars and fans was embedded in the discussion, too. Here's the ad Grinnan's car owner ran in the same edition of the Fraedericksburg paper as the track promoter's Speedway ad:
What do you think Brian France's reaction to such an ad from a car owner might be?
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
