Junior, Junior, Junior. You did the unthinkable. You swore in public. Big public. Millions of couch potatoes and their curtain climbers public.
This after Daddy NASCAR warned you not to. He warned you and your racing buddies at the beginning of the season what would happen. And it happened, too, to Johnny Sauter and Ron Hornaday when they swore during radio interviews. And now you too.
A big fine and the loss of 25 points. That's the price.
I knew listening to the TV interview after Earnhardt's thrilling charge to the victory over the last five laps that he would be in trouble.
He used the "s" word once and the "h" word several times, so, at least he wasn't penalized for each use. He got away with some freebies.
Ray Ratto, who contributes to ESPN.com, says the penalty is too harsh ... at least the point loss.
Ratto points out that, in no other sport, are points taken away after they are earned. Money is, but not points.
It appeared after the EA Sports 500 at Talladega Motor Speedway that Earnhardt had taken a 12 point lead over Kurt Busch in the standings for the Nextel Cup Championship. By losing 25 points, he drops to second, 13 points behind Busch.
There are seven races left. Time enough to make up the deficit if everything goes well.
Ratto also points out the obvious difference between the cases involving Sauter and Hornaday and Earnhardt's matter.
The swearing heard from the former two came as expressions of anger. They were mad about their circumstance at the time and expressed it.
Earnhardt's sin, on the other hand, came as a result of excitement and happiness at what he had just achieved. His win not only put him in the points lead, but it had come as the result of a spectacular performance.
Circumstances had left him in 11th place in the field, with only five laps remaining. His trump card was that he had just taken on new right side tires, while most of the cars in front of him were still running on their old tires. He had been the fastest car on the track most of the day.
His red #8 began passing competitors anywhere he needed it to, finally putting him in front, where he held on for the win.
It was exciting.
Richie Gilmore is director of competition for Dale Earnhardt, Inc. He said the point loss is devastating for the team's Cup campaign and they plan to appeal to restore the points.
Should his appeal be granted? Should the rule be changed to not take points for happy swearing, but take them for angry swearing?
Really, Junior himself may have expressed it best when he said of the controversy, "If anyone was offended by the four-letter word I said I can't imagine why they would have tuned into the race in the first place."
I think he's right. I can't imagine that anyone watching the event has not heard much worse language on any street or in any store or mall or school bus or school hallway in the U.S.
For that matter, anyone with a TV will hear such language on most any sitcom, talk show or reality program.
No, that doesn't make it nice. I once heard a Methodist minister say in a sermon that people swear because they don't have the word power to express themselves otherwise. I agree.
At least they don't use the word power they have. Swearing is easier. Maybe because you can be sure that your listener understands your meaning.
But it doesn't seem right that a competitor who has just accomplished an incredible feat should be penalized that severely for letting his emotions get away from him.
If Earnhardt was just scraping by, a fine instead of a point loss might be the more severe sanction. But he is a multi-millionaire trying to reach the goal everyone else in his business is trying to reach.
The point loss, though, penalizes not only Earnhardt, but the other members of his team who are not multimillionaires.