Montoya gets first penalty, new home (in NASCAR)

[number001]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Juan Pablo Montoya got his first glimpse of NASCAR's heavy hand when the first-year driver was fined $10,000 for making an obscene gesture on live television.

Montoya raised his middle finger to the camera mounted inside his car after a practice session two races ago in Phoenix. He said the gesture was a joke with the TV crew that had been following him the past month for an ABC News special.

But the feed was live, and NASCAR penalizes drivers who use obscene language or gestures on TV. So Montoya received his first punishment since leaving Formula One to join NASCAR last summer. He also was placed on probation through the end of the year. The Colombian apologized for the gesture and doesn't want to discuss it.

``I am done thinking about that, to be honest,'' he shrugged. ``Honestly, I don't even care.''

Even when his refusal to debate the punishment offered a glimpse of a slight irritation, Montoya closed the subject.


``It's their decision, and I'll leave it at that,'' he said. ``If that's what they want to do, then that's what they want to. I am not going to say whether I agree with it or not. I don't care.''


source:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/news?...v=ap&type=lgns

[hitomi]

he is really impulsive (and a hot head sometimes), even when he was in f1 hehe

[mmanson]

wow.hefty fine for a few seconds joke.