WASHINGTON -- NASCAR fans are used to taking some flak, but the latest insult is coming from Capitol Hill.

Before a visit to the NASCAR race in Charlotte this weekend, the chair of the Homeland Security Committee sent a note to staffers advising them to get immunized against hepatitis A, hepatitis B, tetanus, diphtheria and influenza.

The author of the warning, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said his committee aides were visiting health care centers, detention facilities and other operations where they could be exposed to communicable diseases. He said the immunizations were routine for health care workers.

"The very idea of immunization is laughable,'' responded Lowes Motor Speedway president and general manager H.A. "Humpy'' Wheeler. "It's like taping your ankles to go to the mailbox. This is not some third- or fourth-world country.

"As a matter of fact, never in the 50-plus years of NASCAR has there been an outbreak of any kind at an event, other than a few headaches because somebody's favorite driver ran out of gas -- or maybe a morning hangover.''

North Carolina Congressman Robin Hayes reacted, saying NASCAR fans "don't pose any health hazard" to anyone.

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