Page 82 of Happy Hour

Next to it was an actual kiddy swimming pool with god knows what in it but judging by the abundance of pudding cups throughout the room, I presumed it was pudding. At that point, Ihopedit was pudding.

“I’m so glad I used Jameson’s credit card and not mine for this.” Alley replied stepping over some beer bottles and pudding cups.

“So you have no idea where any of the boys are?” Emma asked wrapping toilet paper from the bouncy house around her neck like a scarf.

“No, I said I didn’t know where Spencer and Aiden were.” Alley clarified. “Jameson is meeting with his team and Phillip to decide if they are appealing the fines NASCAR issued this morning.” She threw the newspaper at me.

On the front page of the Pocono Record was a picture of Darrin’s car upside down with a headline of:

Rowdy Riley fined $25,000 for Aggressive Driving

NASCAR penalized Jameson Riley, driver of the No. 9 Ford Simplex car 60 points, fined him $25,000 and put him on probation through the end of the season for aggressive driving in the Winston Cup Series race Sunday afternoon at Pocono International Raceway.

Darrin Torres, driver of the No. 14 Wyle Products Chevy, who was involved in the incident with Riley, was placed on probation though the end of the year for aggressive driving as well.

The penalties issued Monday stem from the lap 194 of theGillette Fusion ProGlide 500, where Torres and Riley were racing for third place. Torres went up the track for a block on the second stretch when Riley hit Torres, wrecking him.

Torres’s car hit both the outside and inside walls before becoming air born in the infield. The accident collected at least seven cars.

“Both of them are on probation through the end of the year. We needed to do that to help protect other drivers from being caught up in an incident not of their making,” NASCAR Vice President of Competition Gordon Reynolds said.

Earlier this season, Torres was placed on three-week probation for retaliating against Riley in the Winston Cup race at Dover. In that race, the retaliation resulted in Riley being hit by Torres after the checkered flag had been thrown on pit road.

Then we all know what happened in the Winston with the backyard brawl on the finish line where these two spared like Ali and Holyfield.

“These two drivers have a history with each other dating back to their USAC days,” Reynolds told us. “We had talked to both drivers after the Dover incident. And even though Darrin was put on probation, we had conversations with Riley about their relationship and explained to them that there will be a boundary.

“You fast forward to Pocono and you look at what we feel like was Darrin misjudging his corner and pit road space and then you look at the retaliation by Jameson coming out of turn two, we felt this had escalated beyond what we should tolerate on the race track. The penalty is to put these guys on notice. They have affected many of the other teams in the garage area and we felt they stepped over the line with their aggressive driving. It was time to penalize.”

Reynolds said the penalties are designed to keep the two drivers from retaliating in the future and affecting the other drivers, should there be any.

“We wanted to do the right thing for the competitors and the right thing for the garage area as far as maintaining law and order,” Reynolds said. “It takes two people to pull this stuff off.”

By losing 60 points, Riley is now 228 behind Torres with 23 races left in the championship.

The Riley Simplex Racing No. 9 team was also docked 60 points in the owner standings. Riley Simplex Racing has not decided whether to appeal and declined to comment on the penalties at this time but did have this to say.

“As with all NASCAR actions of this nature, we will internally evaluate the penalties, and the underlying explanations, prior to making any decision about next steps,” Riley Simplex Racing President Randy Riley, said in a statement. “We look forward to watching Jameson and Darrin as they continue to compete on a weekly basis for the championship in the Winston Cup Series.”

When asked if Jameson would be commenting on the penalties, Riley Simplex Racing declined to comment.

Maggie Summers, a reporter with ESPN, caught up with Jameson last night in downtown Pocono, the aggressive driving penalty was the least of his worries.

When asked about his thoughts on the race, his response was, “What race?” as he took another shot of Tequila.

Gibson Racing will not appeal Torres’s penalty, according to a statement released by the team earlier this morning.

“The incident at the end of Sunday’s race at Pocono was unfortunate not just for Gibson Racing and the No. 14 Wyle Products Chevy team, but for all of the teams that were caught up in the aftermath,” Torres said in the statement early Monday morning. “There was unnecessary damage done to a lot of race cars as a result of the incident, including one of our best cars. We support NASCAR’s decision and we look forward to putting this behind us.”

This was just disgusting. This was...I had no words.

How could they make it out tojustbe his fault?

“Can you believe the nerve of them?” Emma asked.

“What did he think was going to happen?” Alley reproached. “I mean...he’s not a child. Well...that’s debatable, but heknewwhat would happen when he hit Darrin.”

She did have a point, but the way NASCAR painted the picture in this article, it made it seem that Jameson was doing all the retaliation and Darrin had no part of it.

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