ESPN Has No Complaints With Stewart After Former Champ Rips Network

LONG POND, Pa. (AP) _ Tony Stewart's feud with ESPN appears to be one-sided. <br/><br/>An ESPN motorsports producer said on Saturday that the network has no beef with the former Nextel Cup champion

Saturday, August 4th 2007, 2:47 pm

By: News On 6

LONG POND, Pa. (AP) _ Tony Stewart's feud with ESPN appears to be one-sided.

An ESPN motorsports producer said on Saturday that the network has no beef with the former Nextel Cup champion and has little concern about Stewart recently voicing displeasure with some of its analysts.

``I love Tony Stewart and Tony Stewart has called out everybody in this room at one time or another,'' ESPN producer Neil Goldberg said at Pocono Raceway. ``Tony is great for the sport. He's a hard-nosed racer, he goes out there to do a job and he's going to say what he's going to say.''

Stewart was agitated ESPN chided him for saying he was going to drink a case of beer to celebrate his July 15 win in Chicago. One analyst said later that Stewart was not a good role model.

He used a curse word on the network after he won at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, resulting in Stewart being fined $25,000 and docked 25 points by NASCAR this week.

``Our drivers are expected to cooperate with the media partners, and he will cooperate with the media partners. We just have to figure out how to do that,'' NASCAR chairman Brian France said Saturday at the inaugural Busch Series race in Montreal. ``I haven't talked to him about it. Obviously, he said something on their broadcast that we had to take action against. Our drivers are emotional, he is emotional. We'll deal with it.''

Goldberg said all drivers are told they are live before going on the air and that he was surprised to hear profanity after a victory.

Stewart bashed the network after qualifying on Friday, wondering why every time he deals with ESPN he leaves with a ``dagger on our back.'' He accused the network of only being interested in digging up dirt and starting controversy with drivers.

``The good thing is it's my opinion and my decision whether I want to deal with you or not, and right now I don't want to deal with you anymore,'' Stewart told an ESPN reporter on Friday.

ESPN will televise Sunday's Pennsylvania 500.

``I didn't get to hear his comments, but I was briefed on them,'' Goldberg said. ``Nobody controls what Tony says. We're all professionals and everything always works out. He will make his choices and everything will be fine.''

Stewart has won two straight races and is in fifth place in the Nextel Cup points standings.

``You win two races in a row and everyone says you've got a big momentum run,'' Stewart said. ``I'm hoping we've got over the bad luck slump. We should have won six or seven races by this time of year already.''