As weird as it might sound, many fans believe that NASCAR sabotaged Jimmie Johnson’s chances of winning a record 8th championship in the Cup Series. The seven-time champ went from winning multiple races during his title run to winning zero races in his final three full-time seasons. Until now, all of this sounded like a complete conspiracy theory, but Tony Stewart’s latest admission raises serious concerns about fair competition.
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In a rather stunning admission, while speaking on the Oil and Whiskey podcast, Smoke claimed Bill France Jr. restricted Dale Earnhardt from winning multiple championships. “This is real. This is not bullshit. This isn’t a fairy tale or anything like that. I mean, it was real. Dale got invited to go down with Bill Jr. to fish on the yacht out in the ocean. And he goes, ‘You’re not winning the championship next year.’”
He even went as far as to say that NASCAR leadership decided which driver gets to win more. And how he had to face the consequences for not obeying their orders. Interestingly, Dale Earnhardt never won three championships in a row while racing for RCR. Stewart even revealed that Earnhardt and France Jr. had separate radios during races.
“Bill would have two radios. One was to NASCAR radio, and one was a radio that went to the 3 car, okay? He could talk to Dale during the race.” Still, Stewart’s comments align with how NASCAR worked at that time. Bill France Jr. ran the sport like a family business. Rules were subjective. Penalties had the power to change races instantly. Drivers regularly got called into the NASCAR trailer after aggressive moves. Earnhardt himself lived through that.
After wrecking Darrell Waltrip at Richmond in 1986, NASCAR fined and imposed probation on Earnhardt. In 1989, after spinning Ricky Rudd at Bristol for the win, France reportedly hauled Earnhardt into a tense closed-door meeting. Fans often saw those as NASCAR trying to “control” The Intimidator rather than punish him.
But the relationship between France and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was never simple. Publicly, they clashed. Privately, they were close. Earnhardt famously called France “Captain Jack.” After finally winning the 1998 Daytona 500, Earnhardt radioed him and asked, “Captain Jack, can I tear up your football field?” France approved the iconic grass celebration immediately.
That’s what makes Stewart’s story a polarizing element: there is no official data or anything solid that backs it up. However, coming from one of NASCAR’s best, who left it at his best and has been consistent with his reason ever since, this cannot be easily dismissed.
In the same podcast, Stewart dropped another truth bomb. This time, it was his own story.
“Don’t Stink Up My Show”: How NASCAR controlled races
Stewart said he learned NASCAR’s unwritten rules after a race early in his career. He had a three-second lead. Then a caution flag came out. He fought back to another huge lead. Another caution. Then it happened again. After winning, Stewart got summoned to the NASCAR trailer. Instead of congratulations, he got a warning from Bill France Jr.
“Boy, don’t you ever stink up my show like that again.” Stewart said he sat there confused until he realized what France meant. NASCAR wasn’t looking for boring races. A driver running away with the field hurt the entertainment value. That’s where Stewart’s claims get uncomfortable for longtime fans.
He explained that NASCAR’s old scoring system had enormous room for human judgment. Before transponders and digital timing, officials manually tracked laps from the tower. Pit road penalties were heavily based on stopwatches and judgment calls.
“So if you ruffled their feathers the week before,” Stewart said, “guess what? You got a speeding penalty whether you were speeding or not.”
Stewart pointed to debris cautions, too. Fans complained about them for years, especially when good cars suddenly lost massive leads. Stewart openly suggested those cautions were sometimes thrown to tighten races back up. The prime example being the 2016 championship race, where a debris caution with 10 laps to go snatched a title win from Carl Edwards.
At Daytona in 2001, Stewart got black-flagged for passing below the yellow line in one of NASCAR’s first major rulings under the controversial rule. Stewart argued Johnny Benson forced him down there. NASCAR was in disagreement. Then came years of fines, probation, and penalties. After a fight with Brian Vickers in 2004, Stewart got hit with a $50,000 fine and a points deduction. During his 2002 championship run, NASCAR kept him under intense scrutiny after he shoved a photographer at Indianapolis.
“If you didn’t play by the rules the way they wanted you to play — if you were stinking the show up or whatever — they’d either throw a caution or you’d get a speeding penalty.”
The irony was that Tony Stewart still won the title anyway. That’s the part that keeps this debate alive even now. Stewart never claimed NASCAR fixed every race. He claimed NASCAR controlled the environment around them. If a driver embarrassed the show, officials had ways to push back. And in Stewart’s mind, everybody in the garage eventually figured it out.
