Shane Hmiel Statement on Bristol Busch Race

STATEMENT FROM SHANE  HMIEL REGARDING BRISTOL NASCAR BUSCH RACE 
QUESTION:  UPON REFLECTION, IF YOU HAD IT TO DO  OVER AGAIN, WOULD YOU DO 
ANYTHING DIFFERENT AFTER MONDAY’S BUSCH RACE IN  BRISTOL? 
HMIEL ANSWER:  Of course I would.  I want to apologize to the fans watching  
on television, especially the children, that they witnessed the post race on  
live TV.  Every driver builds so  much adrenaline at Bristol that it isn’t 
easy to shut it down immediately when  your car rolls to a stop but it doesn’t 
make up for the fact that everyone  watching live TV witnessed the incident. 
QUESTION:  HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT DALE  JARRETT? 
HMIEL ANSWER:  I have a tremendous amount of respect  for Dale. He has proved 
he is a great race driver.  He has won a championship, three Daytona  500s 
and numerous other races.  There is no way I meant to hit him; it was simply 
five laps to go at  Bristol.  Things happen so fast and  with everyone wrecking 
in front of us, it played out that Dale ended up with a  torn up race car.  I 
hate that  happened. 
I am very passionate  about my racing and I am a hard racer.  I love racing 
and there is nothing more I want to do.  But part of what makes our sport is as 
 strong as it is are drivers like Dale who have built the fan base and earned 
the  respect on and off the track of their fellow drivers. 
QUESTION:  WHERE DO YOU GO FROM HERE? 
HMIEL ANSWER: First, I would like to personally assure the fans  that I have 
the utmost respect for all of the drivers who have built this sport  to the 
level it is today, especially Dale Jarrett.  I intend to speak with Dale and  
apologize to him for the comment I made after the race in the heat of the  
moment.  I am sure Dale and I  are going to race against one another several times 
this season and I want us to  both be confident that this was an isolated 
incident and we are starting with a  clean slate. 
I would like to put  this all behind us so we can all go forward in a 
positive manner.  We have filed an appeal with NASCAR  regarding the penalties that 
were assessed and will make the best presentation  we can.  Whatever the 
decision is,  we will respect and move on to the next race.