Nationwide driver Jeremy Clements suspended for unknown comments
NASCAR announced Tuesday that it had suspended Nationwide Series driver Jeremy Clements for comments he made in an interview on Saturday.
What interview that was or what Clements said is unknown, however.
“During the course of an interview, Jeremy Clements made an intolerable and insensitive remark,” NASCAR Senior VP of Racing Operations Steve O'Donnell said in a release. “NASCAR has a Code of Conduct that’s explicitly spelled out in the 2013 NASCAR Rule Book. We fully expect our entire industry to adhere to that Code.”
Tuesday evening, Clements posted the following statement to his team's Facebook page:
“I apologize and regret what I said to the NASCAR writer and to NASCAR, my sponsors, my fans, and my team. NASCAR has a Code of Conduct that everyone must follow and I unintentionally violated that code. I will not get into specifics of what I said but my comment to the writer was in no way meant to be disrespectful or insensitive to anyone or to be detrimental to NASCAR or the NASCAR Nationwide Series. I will do what I need to do in order to atone for my error in judgment. “
There's no point in speculating about what Clements, 28, said; and it's entirely possible the comments he made will be published in an interview that's yet to be released. Or we may never know. Was it a TV interview that wasn't aired? Though that seems to be refuted by Clements' reference to a writer in the apology. And how would the comments found to be suspension worthy? The interview obviously wasn't conducted in the media center at Daytona. (Though I guess it seems logical that we've moved from secret fines from suspensions for unknown comments?)
Clements finished 14th in last year's Nationwide Series standings driving for his own team, Jeremy Clements Racing in the No. 51. At Daytona, he finished 33rd after only completing 88 laps because of an oil line problem.
