Team sponsor fines Stewart $50G for outburst

ATLANTA -- Tony Stewart, who said NASCAR's $10,000 fine and season-long probation over his most recent outburst was too light, was hit even harder by his own team sponsor on Thursday.

The Winston Cup star, who punched a photographer following last Sunday's Brickyard 400, was fined $50,000 and placed on team probation for the remainder of the 2002 season by The Home Depot, the sponsor of his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Pontiac.

A spokesman for the Atlanta-based company said the $50,000 will go to the United Way of Central Indiana, Stewart's home state, to be used for a variety of after school programs for children.

The sponsor made its decision to add to NASCAR's penalties after consulting the publisher's office of The Indianapolis Star. It was a free-lance photographer working for that newspaper who had the run-in with Stewart.

Upset after a 12th-place finish on Sunday, Stewart tried to run away from photographer Gary Mook. When Mook started running alongside him, Stewart stopped and punched him in the chest. Mook was not injured.

On Tuesday, prior to driving in a late model modified race in Terre Haute, Ind., Stewart called NASCAR's fine "light" and said he deserved a "stiffer" fine given his past indiscretions.