Stewart rips NASCAR for 'dangerous' racing
by: MARK LONG, AP Sports Write

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Defending Nextel Cup series champion Tony Stewart criticized superspeedway racing following his third-place finish in the Budweiser Shootout on Sunday, saying ``we're going to hurt somebody really, really bad.''

Stewart said ``bump drafting'' was out of control, with drivers slamming into competitors heading into turns, running through them and coming out of them.

We're sitting here watching TV before we came down here and they're talking about the tribute to Dale Earnhardt,'' Stewart said. ``Well, five years from now we're going to have to do another tribute to another driver because we're probably going to kill somebody from Wednesday through Sunday.

``It could be me. It could be Dale Jr. It could be anybody out there.''

Stewart suggested that NASCAR officials ``soften'' front bumpers on cars in hopes of forcing drivers to keep their distance from others and penalizing them with damage if they do get too close.

``We've got to find some way of calming this down,'' Stewart said.

Stewart spoke with NASCAR officials after the race and expressed his concerns. NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said it was unlikely anything would change before Sunday's Daytona 500.

``It's become a problem,'' Hunter said of bump drafting. ``We know it's a problem. Any solution that we look for, we have to make sure we don't make the cars less safe instead of more safe. That's the No. 1 thing.

``We've got to make sure that whatever we do to cars that it's scientific and not shade tree. We've thought about this before. I think we'll ratchet up the research and get a lot more input, but I don't think it will happen before the Daytona 500.''

Dale Earnhardt was killed on the final turn of the 2001 Daytona 500 when he slammed into the wall at more than 180 mph. Numerous safety issues have been installed since, including ``soft walls'' and head and neck restraints.

Nonetheless, NASCAR's aerodynamic packages keep the cars in tight packs, especially during the horsepower-sapping restrictor-plate races at Daytona and Talladega.

The aero packages also have created bump drafting, a technique in which cars run into each other in hopes of creating space and holes to move to the front of the pack.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished second in the Shootout behind race winner Denny Hamlin, was less concerned than Stewart about that type of racing. He also said it won't be as prevalent in next Sunday's Daytona 500.

``Tony's got a point. It was dangerous in a couple of spots,'' Earnhardt said. ``I don't know how you fix it. I don't think you'll see it a lot except in the Shootout. For the most part, the drivers won't race that hard and risk crashing every lap.''

Earnhardt said drivers were the cause of the problem and said there was little NASCAR could do to end aggressive driving.

``We'll find something else to run into each other with, if it's not the front bumper,'' Earnhardt said.