#2 Team caught cheating or just a mixup

dpkimmel2001

dpkimmel2001

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Probably the latter but who knows.....

#2 Team caught with an extra set of tires - The #2 Penske Racing team of Kurt Busch, was accused of harboring an extra set of tires acquired from the #64 Gunselman Motorsports team. Crew chief Steve Addington called situation "a miscommunication with NASCAR." Addington was attempting to make a qualifying run with a pair of scuffed left tires and fresh "sticker" tires on the right. For his effort, driver Kurt Busch posted the 12th fastest lap with a speed of 132.864 mph. "It was a mix-up and we got penalized for it," said Addington who will lose a set of tires for Saturday's two practice sessions. The #2 Dodge will have to run both sessions with just two sets of tires. Teams are allowed six set of tires for practice and qualifying at New Hampshire. Addington will retain all eight sets of his tires for the Sylvania 300. When NASCAR was asked about the situation, Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby said the sanctioning body "won't know (of any repercussions) for sure until the end of the second practice Saturday."

NASCAR officials said that no determination of a penalty will be made until the sanctioning body goes through the tire inventories of both teams. If a penalty is forthcoming, it will be imposed Saturday morning before practice starts. Each Sprint Cup team is allowed an aggregate six sets of tires at New Hampshire for three practice sessions and qualifying. The allocation for Sunday's Sylvania 300 Cup race is eight sets of tires and would be unaffected by any penalty.
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This one was a shock to me. I always thought the cup guys had unlimited sets of tires they could use.
 
JustMe said:
This one was a shock to me. I always thought the cup guys had unlimited sets of tires they could use.
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I never really knew either but it looks like it was probably just a mistake anyhow. Practice has already started today and the verdict is.....

Penske Racing team loses set of tires and 15 minutes of practice for improper tire swap. Followup article here.
 
Probably a mix-up.I mean it's not like they they got their car numbers on the rims.:rolleyes::rolleyes:

#2 and #64 do look alike:sarcasm:
 
So to all the smartie pants...It says TIRES not TIRES AND RIMS, so your #64 painted on the rims and your gold and red comments don't matter.
 
Bucky Badger said:
So to all the smartie pants...It says TIRES not TIRES AND RIMS, so your #64 painted on the rims and your gold and red comments don't matter.
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They simply didn't follow protocol. Apparently what they did would have been just fine had they gone through Goodyear.

It was tires and rims.....

The Penske Racing team of Kurt Busch didn’t properly exchange a set of tires with the Gunselman Motorsports team during practice Friday and as a result had to forfeit that set for practice Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Teams get six sets of tires to be used for practice and qualifying for Friday and Saturday. Because four-car organizations get 24 sets – and then each team can pick the six sets it feels will work best with its spring rates – NASCAR gives other organizations the option of swapping with other teams.

That swapping must be done through Goodyear, and Busch’s team didn’t do that on Friday, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby said Saturday morning.

Once Busch’s team put on two scuffed tires from the Gunselman team on his car, it then had seven sets in its inventory. So the team, which used only five sets Friday, had to give back that set of Gunselman tires and also couldn’t use one of its original six sets of stickers.

That left Busch with four sets of scuffs and one set of stickers instead of five sets of scuffs and one set of stickers for practice Saturday, said Busch crew chief Steve Addington.

NASCAR also held both teams out for 15 minutes of practice Saturday morning.

"Bottom line is we asked one official if we could trade a set of scuffs for stickers with another team," Busch said following practice Saturday. "He said that was fine. We had another official who will remain nameless but he has two first names – you can't trust guys with two first names – he said we had black wheels on our car [instead of their yellow wheels].

"If we had black wheels all the time, he would never have noticed. It wasn't anything we were trying to do. … We paid our 15-minute penalty. It's just like calling balls and strikes. You just go with what the umpire says and move on from there."

Darby said although the team didn't use more than its six sets, there was that potential.

“They didn’t exceed what anybody else did in the garage,” Darby said. “But there still was a little bit of a question as to was that really right or not. The tire transfer wasn’t done correctly. … If this would have gone undetected, we would have had a situation where the 2 [of Busch] could have had seven sets.”

Busch obviously wasn't happy about missing the 15 minutes of practice.

"Sitting there was just motivation for what we know we did right," Busch said. "We didn't do anything wrong. That's what it takes to get me motivated is when somebody calls us out wrong. We didn't do anything wrong. We're going to go out there and run our best."

Addington said prior to the practice he was not sure how much losing a set of tires for practice Saturday will mean to the team, which is fifth in the Cup standings. Busch said it didn't mean much.

"We had a good game plan on the first session anyhow to do a big rear-end change," Busch said. "When you do that, it takes up a lot of time. I feel like we made up for the time. We were 50 laps in that lap session. We got good track time. [The car] seems pretty good. We're like what we were in July, a little tight at the apex."

Busch will have a full allotment of eight sets of tires for Sunday’s Sylvania 300. There will be no points penalty, Darby said.
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Are the teams still allowed to scuff tires for other drivers during the race?
 
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