Now that there is funny.

The front office party fund

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You definitely have a way with words!!!!

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Sorry Doug I don’t mean to single you out but I think you may be missing the point here.

It doesn’t matter what the reason is for Rick Stewart giving the shut off signal to ANY team!!! The fact is, a crew chief isn’t privy to the information that Rick Stewart is. Rick has full control of the entire race track period and everyone knows that!!! What if there was a problem at the other end of the track that A.J. didn’t know about?? (Stewart would know about it because of his radio communications with the rest of the Safety Safari) The Army team showed no concern for Doug Kalitta’s safety, they were only concerned about getting the extra 20 points for setting a record… in my opinion.

Like him or hate him, Rick Stewart has the final say in any situation concerning the entire race surface including the starting line. This is a dangerous sport and there has to be ONE person in complete control or bad things will happen!!!

Rick Stewart walked right by AJ. Could have stretched out his arm and touched AJ, no problem WHY didn't Stewart TELL AJ to shut it down?
Stewart just kept walking and started talking to another crew member then activates the tree.
Am sure it was confussing to Tony. Lets not forget the Capps? incident to shut it down for a supposed leak. Turns out it was previous car leaking I believe.
Leaking around a spark plug O ring??
If anyone should be fined then perhaps Stewart for non-communication skills.
Come people LOOK AT THE video in slow motion. Stewart acted like a confussed idiot. Guess dim light in the tower didn't have his remote controller on or perhaps one too many beers--LOL

awesome post! thats what ive been saying, they didnt care about dougs safety, they only wanted the 20 pts. and how come they didnt ask him about it on nhra2day? hes the goldenboy thatswhy. go team kalitta!!!!!

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Doug, You make some very good points however, I cant answer them.

Maybe he thought because he gave the driver (the guy with the “kill switch” within reach) the shut off signal that he made himself clear…. I don’t know. I watched the show last night but I couldn’t clearly see what actually happened and I was watching for it too because I heard about it earlier in the day on the audio cast.

I will agree with you that Rick could have done more like give him a red light or not activate the tree for example but that wouldn’t have been fair to Doug. Again, I don’t know….. I’m just glad I wasn’t in Rick’s shoes last night.

Put a kill switch on the firewall just like the Jr. cars......

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Remote kill like they use in tractor pulling?

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$20.000? What a JOKE.

More importantly (Gee, I remember when 20 G's was a lot of money) will there be any points penalty?

Don't hold your breath.

Understood, but is there any precedence?

I should know this, but does Rick & all those tech guys all wear radios & headsets? Why not? (I know first hand it's awful hard to use radios in the first place with the noise) but my beef.... once again... is with the sanctioning body; NOT the drivers or crews. "Not seeing it" is just unacceptable to me. The officials should all be able to communicate with each other at any moment.
Someone from Racing Radios needs to make a sales call to Glendora.
And, the token NHRA fine.... is getting to be like a joke like in the NFL & NBA.
I truly believe Tony will still be able to pay his mortgage this month... even with this financial "set back".

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Here is my take.....

-Tony disobeyed Rick Stewart's orders, more than once. I saw Rick signal him more than once.

-Rick Stewart seemed to clear it with the other NHRA guy on the line before Tony went into stage.

-$20,000 is a more than adequate penalty. However I feel there should also be a probation period for the team.

-Points deduction was not suitable as if he had of benefited from the run I would hope the NHRA would have disallowed the run.

-GENERAL OBSERVATION - Rick Stewart's antics in general are embarrassing

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