CCWS bosses already have fined and deducted championship points from Tracy for his pushing and shoving match with Alex Tagliani at San Jose as well as placing him on an indefinite probation.
In all other major motor sports series that means if there is another transgression of a similar nature the penalty becomes much more severe.
In NASCAR Nextel Cup two seasons ago, Jimmy Spencer had a dust-up with Kurt Busch while on probation and he was parked for one race.
Lots of pressure
And there will be lots of pressure from the Newman-Haas Racing camp for Champ Car to do just that to Tracy.
Bourdais said as much after Sunday’s contretemps when he wondered aloud what punishment Champ Car would impose on Tracy.
As sure as today is Tuesday, both Carl Haas and Paul Newman will be lobbying hard for a substantial penalty for what they claim was a deliberate move by Tracy to wreck Bourdais to help his Forsythe Championship Racing teammate A.J. Allmendinger in the points battle.
On the flip side of the coin is the argument that Tracy uses — he may have been the innocent victim in Denver where the incident took place on the final turn of the final lap of the race and that as a result there should be no penalty.
The dilemma for Champ Car is that the next race on their calendar is in Montreal in two weeks where they need Tracy to help sell tickets to an event that almost disappeared for lack of interest last year.
Contacted yesterday, Tracy told the Toronto Sun he isn’t offering any apologies to anyone for what happened.
In fact he pointed the finger right back at Bourdais for being the author of his own misfortune.
“If you are going to make a move like that, on the last lap of a race with a guy you have history with, for two extra points, that’s a risk that you take,” Tracy said of his rival’s actions. “I don’t know what he was thinking. If he thought I was just going to roll over and let him have the corner he must still believe in the tooth fairy.”
As for the pushing incident, Tracy said he was the one on the receiving end.
“He came over to me to give me a shove,” he said. “You know he’s another Frenchman who comes over with his helmet on. They do that in hockey, too, I guess.”
Tracy said that Bourdais was the aggressor throughout the whole incident.
“He wanted to goad me into doing something back to him but then he ran off before I could do anything,” he said. “The end result is that I’m going to be in the mix for the final four races of this season and if Bourdais wants to tangle with me then he’s going to end up with sore toes.”
Tracy also thinks that Champ Car needs him in Montreal and would be going down a wrong road by penalizing him for his actions.
“If Champ Car decides to do something about it or not, I guess it’s up to them,” he said. “But right now we have just 16 cars, what are they going to do — pull a car out of the race and have 15? I find that highly unlikely.”
A Champ Car official said there will not be a decision unti today on any penalties.