While nearly every other professional sport — Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NBA — is trying to tighten the reins on its athletes' behavior, NASCAR is loosening them.

As the 2008 season prepares for its Sunday start with the Daytona 500 (11 a.m. on Fox), two of its most popular drivers have already mixed it up a little bit.

NASCAR placed drivers Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart on probation for six races Tuesday, beginning with Daytona.

The punishment stems from a confrontation between the two drivers, in which Busch intentionally slammed his car into Stewart as they exited the track in practice last week. After that, the two continued their hostilities inside the NASCAR officials' trailer and Stewart was widely rumored to have punched Busch.

Still, the probation was seen as a lighter punishment and NASCAR has said it will give drivers greater latitude in expressing their, shall we say, displeasure with one another.

At the same time, NASCAR officials said they would definitely "take action" against either of the two drivers if they are involved in another incident. That has always happened after repeat offenses in the past.

You might think Fox analyst Darrell Waltrip, being a former driver, would welcome the new leeway the drivers are being given, but there's something about it that makes him a little queasy.

"It makes me a little bit nervous," he said this week. "I know how these guys are. They do have to have some restraints on them. They do have to know what their limits are and they do have to know where the lines are. I'm not a real big fan of saying, Hey, we're going to lighten up and let boys be boys.' I think they still have to maintain the control they always have. NASCAR still has to police the thing the way they always have, but I think maybe they don't have to be so particular when two guys get in each other's face or push each other around, to immediately slap both of them with probation; I think they ought to get away from that.

"Those guys in there are all emotional and they all have high tempers and when they put those helmets on, they go into another world. NASCAR has to maintain the same control they've always have, but maybe just be a little bit kinder and gentler about it."

Play-by-play announcer Mike Joy said he thinks NASCAR believes it's not all that bad a thing for the sport to occasionally have a little controversy, even if that means drivers exchanging punches.

"As you fellas (reporters) know," Joy said, "good news doesn't sell papers. A good confrontation, a good stirred-up rivalry sells papers, it's what puts fannies in the seats at these racetracks and what put eyeballs in front of the TV. You can have great competition on the racetrack, but you really need to engage the fan to care about what happens to his driver and especially a situation where he's confronted by another driver with whom he has a history. And drivers don't forget. Drivers are like elephants in that regard. I think letting some of this emotion out, letting it show without being taken to the woodshed is a good thing for the sport and it's a good thing for the sport on television."

Larry McReynolds, also a Fox analyst, thinks it's best if NASCAR doesn't try to make one blanket set of hard and fast rules work for every situation.

"I think it's going to be a case-by-case basis," he said. "I think they're going to look at what's the history with this particular driver or the history between these two particular drivers. I think they were watching very closely at the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday night the (No.) 20 and the 2 cars to see how they were going to race against each other.

McReynolds pointed out an example where he thought NASCAR overreacted.

"A couple of years ago in the spring Bristol (Tenn.) race when basically Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth got out of their cars after the race, Jeff Gordon pushed Matt Kenseth and they fined the men $10,000 (each). To me that was absolutely absurd."

— Jim Carlisle is a staff writer for The Star. E-mail address: jcarlisle@VenturaCountyStar.com.