Are freedom of speechs lessons lost in NASCAR?
BRISTOL, Tenn. NASCAR fans love it when a driver tells it like it is. Until, of course, one actually does it. “If you don’t say what somebody else likes, they’re going to chew you up for it,” Dale Jarrett says. “You have to decide how much of that you’re ready to bite off. …You hear all the time everybody likes it when everybody speaks their minds, but when they do they’re damned for it. I just don’t understand.” That’s not Tony Stewart saying that, not one of the Busch brothers or Kevin Harvick or any one of the drivers race fans are too quick to label a “whiner” when he speaks out on a topic he feels strongly about. That’s Jarrett, the well-respected, second-generation veteran who makes his final career Sprint Cup points race start in Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Jeff Gordon is a four-time champion in the sport who will start second alongside teammate Jimmie Johnson on Sunday’s front row. Gordon also knows what a public relations minefield a driver starts throu
