Commission denies Berrier's suspension appeal

T

TonyB

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NASCAR.com

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The National Stock Car Racing Commission on Tuesday rejected Richard Childress Racing's appeal of penalties that were assessed to the owner, driver Kevin Harvick and crew chief Todd Berrier following the March 13 Nextel Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

On March 15, NASCAR announced Berrier had been suspended for four races and fined $25,000 -- in addition to 25-point deductions to both Goodwrench Chevrolet driver Harvick and Childress, the No. 29 car's owner -- for a fuel cell system that was doctored prior to qualifying to appear full when it was not.

Harvick initially qualified fourth for the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 but his time was disallowed. He started the race 42nd based on Childress' 2004 owner points and came back in the race to finish fifth.

Following the March 20 Golden Corral 500 at Atlanta, the team's penalties left Harvick 11th in the driver standings, 13 points behind eighth place Elliott Sadler; and Childress in the same position -- 11th -- in the owner standings.

Although Childress had Berrier serve the first race of his suspension two weeks ago during the Atlanta weekend, he appealed the severity of the penalty.

With the rejection Tuesday by the commission, which consisted of chairman George Silbermann, NASCAR's director of administration; former Goodyear Tire racing official Leo Mehl and former team owner Bud Moore -- Berrier is scheduled to miss races at Bristol this weekend, Martinsville and Texas.

Tuesday's decision reversed a trend in which three consecutive NASCAR crew chief suspensions were rescinded by the commission within the last two weeks.

Previously, Braun Racing Busch Series crew chief Todd Lohse had a four-race suspension removed and Hendrick Motorsports Nextel Cup chiefs Chad Knaus and Alan Gustafson -- who were both suspended for two races following Las Vegas -- had their suspensions removed.

In those cases, the commission maintained the monetary and/or point penalties that had been assessed in the respective cases.

For Berrier, the suspension has definite limits.

According to a NASCAR spokesperson, "suspension" means a license holder is restricted from participating, either by using their NASCAR license to attend a competition event or communicating with their team during one.

Suspended team members may not attend test sessions, but they may work daily at a team's shop.

Childress has the right under Section 15 of the Nextel Cup Series rulebook to appeal the commission's decision to the National Stock Car Racing Commissioner, Charles D. Strang.
 
I will bet that Todd will be replaced before the "Chase" starts.
 
Anyone expect anything different? Berrier screwed himself by bragging about it. I doubt that he'll ever get over it.
 
He should have said his middle name was Busch....he seems to get out of things pretty easy after bragging about something....
 
Nope this wasn't no big surprise. Not after Berrier let his mouth over load his butt. :D
 
I suppose RC isn't surprised either, more than likely, the appeal was just a courtesy to make NASCAR work for the money they earned for the fine.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if Todd Berrier never gets back on tool box again for RCR. I'd bet Richard is interviewing his replacement right now and has been doing that for a couple weeks now. Todd needs to be sending his resume out to anyone who will recieve it............and I bet that ain't many. Maybe he could move to Mexico City and find someone to hire him for an upstart team in the Busch South of the Border series.
 
Meanwhile. Richard Childress babbles like an idiot:


"First of all, blah, blah, blah, what Todd Berrier did was wrong and we deserve to be penalized," Childress said. "But I think suspending him for four weeks, in light of everything else that has happened in the past several weeks, is wrong blah blah.

"The infraction took place during qualifying and we were sent to the back of the field to start the race. Penalizing Kevin Harvick, who knew nothing about the infraction before the fact, is also wrong. NASCAR's decision to deduct driver points, whether it's Kevin Harvick or any other driver, does an injustice to the sponsors and everyone involved with the racing organization. blah blah"
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N2racin88 said:
Meanwhile. Richard Childress babbles like an idiot:
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Babble like an Idiot? Yeah right. The man made a statement.Just like anyone else would. He makes millions each year. Wish I could babble like that. :D
 
Gollum said:
Babble like an Idiot? Yeah right. The man made a statement.Just like anyone else would. He makes millions each year. Wish I could babble like that. :D
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Heck, I'd love to be an idiot like that!! :D
 
while i agree that they cheated and they should be held responsible...it happened before the race and they were sent to the back of the field...meanwhile the cars that finished 1st and 2nd in the race were found to be illegal...and their crew chiefs are allowed to continue....RC is right..this is wrong...its nascar again showing favortism...i love racing..but NASCAR's ruling body is a joke.
 
I guess you haven't been watching long enough to understand how NASCAR works handing out penalties.

ALL violations NASCAR inspectors find during prerace inspections, parts confiscated etc. have ALWAYS been penalized on Tue. or Wed. of the next week.
Teams have been penalized money and pionts for violations on cars that have NOT been out on the track yet. By some peoples theory they gained no advantage so should, all the teams in the past been penalized?

It doesn't matter if a team is caught before practice going through prerace inspection, after qualifing or in post race inspection, cheating is cheating.
Qualifing IS part of the compitition of race weekend, so getting caught in post qualifing inspection means you have participated in compitition with the illegal compontents on your car. Period!
Ther are 2 things teams try to accomplish during qualifing, 1 is for the best starting spot, 2 is pit selection. Even teams that changed engines and know they have to start at the rear qualify the best the can to get the best pit selection.
Everytime a car takes the track during an event weekend it is supposed to be legal and is subject to punishment if found illegal.
In Todd's case, he was caught holding the smoking gun, then admitted it. If that wasn't bad enough he was stupied enough to brag about it, even saying he'd do it again but knew how not to get caught next time.
I think the officials and the appeals panel took all that into consideration when first handing down the penalty and then upholding it.

Test sessions are for teams to try different things without inspections or penalty.

As far as the HMS cars go,......... "Beyond resonable doubt" is the basis of our entire judicial system.
The cars were high or low which ever the case, so it is beyond resonable doubt that they did not meet the post race inspection specs. Therefore the punishment handed out to many teams in the past for the same infractions was up held. They both had passed prerace inspection so they were legal then.
As far as the suspensions for the 2 crew chiefs, "IF" it was proved beyond a reasonable doubt that they knew what they were doing and intentionally violated the rules, I'm sure the panel would have upheld that part of the penalty. NASCAR just could not place the smoking gun into their hands.
Weither you believe they intentionally, knowingly made these adjustments KNOWING it would put them outside the box, therefore intentionally cheating is not relevant.
The fact that in one case a locking bolt was broken, and the other a front spring had compressed lowering the front raising the back presents enough reasonable doubt of intentional cheating. Without some telltale sign of parts tampering to cause stress fatigue NO jury in this country could convict them for this crime. There's just to much doubt, added with the fact that it is known that parts do fail from time to time.
 
I guess you haven't been watching long enough to understand how NASCAR works handing out penalties.
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ive been watching nascar for 20 some odd years....im not talkin out of my ass...i think its wrong nascar suspsended a crew chief for something that happened before the race and didnt suspend the crew chief of the first and 2nd place cars in the race.
 
This Buds For Me said:
ive been watching nascar for 20 some odd years....im not talkin out of my ass...i think its wrong nascar suspsended a crew chief for something that happened before the race and didnt suspend the crew chief of the first and 2nd place cars in the race.
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Then Berrier should have kept his blabber mouth shut about how he could get away with it NEXT time!!!! THAT is what sealed his fate.
 
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