Revised/extended 5:01 pm 2/16/2007 – The reasons just keep on growing.
Just in case you missed the reasons for my final break with Hen¢AR at TheWisconsinSportsBar, I’ll repeat it here:
Let’s review the tape, shall we…with some additional information found after reading Larry McReynolds (revised and updated 4:58 pm 2/16/2007)
- 2002 Coca-Cola 600 post-race inspection – The Roush Racing #6 Ford is caught 1/8th inch too low after Mark Martin won the race. Penalty – $50,000 fine to crew chief Ben Leslie. Also, then-NASCAR President Bill France announced a plan to start taking championship points away for future violations of NASCAR’s rulebook (in limited circumstances, involving the “big 3” violations of fuel/engine size and horsepower/tires found post-race, NASCAR had disqualified the team and taken away the points earned).
- 2002 Pepsi 400 (unknown when in the weekend this was discovered)- The Hendrick Motorsports #48 Chevrolet is the first team to have points taken away in the modern penalty era, losing 25 driver’s/owner’s points for being caught with offset mounts for the truck arms (part of the rear suspension). Crew chief Chad Knaus also lost $25,000 in a fine.
- 2002 New England 300 post-race inspection – The Robert Yates Racing #88 Ford is caught 1/8th inch too low after Dale Jarrett finished 3rd in the race. Penalty – 25 driver’s/owner’s points and $20,000 fine to crew chief Todd Parrott.
- 2005 UAW-Ford 500 (fall Talledega race) post-qualifying inspection – The Richard Childress Racing #29 Chevrolet is caught with several unapproved changes relating to airflow in and around the trunk area. Penalty – disallowal of the qualifying time, $10,000 fine to crew chief Todd Berrier, 2-race suspension for Berrier, zero driver’s/owner’s points taken away.
- 2006 Daytona 500 post-qualifying inspection – The Hendrick Motorsports #48 Chevrolet is caught with a trick rear window designed to give an aerodynamic advantage. Penalty – disallowal of the qualifying time, $25,000 fine to Knaus, 4-race suspension for Knaus, zero driver’s/owner’s points taken away from either Jimmie Johnson or owner Jeff Gordon.
- 2006 Daytona 500 post-qualifying inspection – The Hall of Fame Racing #96 Chevrolet is caught with an illegal manifold. Penalty – disallowal of the qualifying time, $25,000 fine to crew chief Phillipe Lopez, 4-race suspension for Lopez, and 25 driver’s/owner’s points taken away (important because it was a new-for-2006 team). Note; discussions of an alliance between HOF Racing and Hendrick Motorsports had fallen through, and HOF Racing just signed an alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing.
- 2007 Daytona 500 post-qualifying inspection – The Roush Racing #17 Ford and all three Evernham Racing Dodges are caught with insufficiently-covered holes in the rear wheel wells normally used for the oil cooler. The #17 and #9 suffer the biggest penalties – qualifying times disallowed, $50,000 fines and 4-race suspensions for the crew chiefs, and the loss of 50 driver’s/owner’s points for each driver/team. The #10 and #19 crew chiefs were each suspended 2 races and fined $25,000, with the drivers and owner losing 25 points on each team. As a side note, Ray Evernham, the owner of Evernham Racing, used to be the crew chief on the Hendrick Motorsports #24 Chevrolet before he left to be one of the founding teams for Dodge.
- 2007 Daytona 500 pre- and post-qualifying inspection – The Michael Waltrip Racing #55 Toyota is caught with what turns out to be jet fuel in the intake manifolds. After the removal of the first intake manifold, Mikey was allowed to qualify, but the same substance appeared after qualifying. Perhaps because Toyota is pumping a LOT of money into Hen ¢AR, the penalty isn’t as severe as it could be; the disallowal of the qualifying time (important because the team was not in the top 35 in owners’ points at the end of 2005), the loss of 100 driver’s/owner’s points, a $100,000 fine for the crew chief, the indefinite suspension of the crew chief and team director, and the seizure of the car. Mikey did ultimately race his way into the Daytona 500.
- 2007 Gatorade Duel 2 post-race inspection – The Hendrick Motorsports #24 Chevrolet is found to be 1 inch too low after Jeff Gordon won the 2nd Duel. The only penalty – move the #24 from 4th in the grid for the Daytona 500 to 42nd. Jeffy still gets to keep the win, and there will be no points deduction or fines assessed.
See you at the few short tracks remaining in Wisconsin. To hell with Hen ¢AR!
Good luck to Matt; he’ll need it now that the official Hen¢AR team for 2007 has been annointed. I wonder what Hen¢AR will do if he manages to take the 2007 title from poor little Jeffy, Jimmie, and the almost-official Stewie (Jr’s too outspoken to ever be fully-embraced by Brainless France).
