Hendrick: COT's gray area should be better defined
Owner believes crew chiefs did not bend the rules
By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
June 23, 2007
07:54 PM EDT
type size: + -SONOMA, Calif. -- Owner Rick Hendrick ardently defended two of his four race teams at Infineon Raceway on Saturday, one day after the cars of Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson were held out of practice and qualifying for Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350.
Gordon and Johnson's Chevrolet failed initial inspection when the dimensions of their front fenders were deemed to be outside NASCAR tolerances.
The infraction forces Gordon, the defending champion of the event and the Nextel Cup points leader, to line his No. 24 Chevrolet up 41st and Johnson, the defending Cup champion, next to Gordon in 42nd.
"I wish we could stamp the bodies and give them to us. If it's got a serial number on it from NASCAR and we haven't altered the serial number, we're in good shape."
Rick HendrickBoth men practiced Saturday, with Gordon third in the first practice and both he and Johnson in the top 10 in Happy Hour.
"This is a penalty," Hendrick said adamantly. "We're behind everybody else because we didn't get any track time [Friday]. Starting in the rear, nobody's ever done it and won a race here.
"This is a big penalty not being able to qualify and get a good starting spot and a good pit spot. I'm not going to say it's impossible [to overcome] but we're just hoping for a good finish. If these two cars finish in the top 10 [Sunday] I'll be real happy."
NASCAR indicated further sanctions might be forthcoming after next week's competition meetings, and Hendrick said he had already begun pleading his case.
"We'll have to see what the penalty is," Hendrick said. "But I don't think that the penalty fits the crime in this case, when you're talking about the top of a fender and you're doing it by hand.
"Is somebody going to decide a championship that way? That'll be an awfully tough deal."
Hendrick is trying to make a case that his men did nothing new with their adjustments.
"Well, I don't necessarily say they bent the rules -- I think they thought they were working inside an area in which they could," Hendrick said. "The fenders on the car are sitting out there in front of God and everybody, so if you're going to try to do something to gain an advantage you wouldn't do it rolling through inspection.
"I think it's a gray area and this Car of Tomorrow is going to be hard, unless you've got a digital machine here and you're going to coordinates-measure everything, you're going to be in a gray area -- and then what happens?
"It's going to be tough, as we go forward, on what's intentional and what's accidental and how they handle it, so you're definitely going to have to show up with these things measured up."
He even said, given a six-race suspension to Dale Earnhardt Inc. crew chief Tony Eury Jr. along with severe monetary and points penalties for the first COT violation, that he couldn't definitely advise his crews not to explore gray areas.
"Yeah, but what's gray?" Hendrick said. "When they send out a bulletin and say, 'You mess with this part and you're going to get a stiff deal?' And then you look at an area of the body that's hand-made -- I don't know.
"We're just going to have to go back and make sure that we know what the tolerances are and we stay there. Whatever happens, we wish it hadn't. We came out here to try to win this race and now we're going to try to survive it. We've already gotten a big penalty, so we'll go on."
Hendrick said the reason his cars for drivers Casey Mears and Kyle Busch passed inspection and the others did not was because the 24 and 48 are prepared in a shop separate from their teammates.
While he cited the fact that the COT machines from the five previous Hendrick Motorsports victories -- the first five COT races this season -- had been painstakingly inspected by NASCAR at its research and development center in Concord, N.C., he acknowledged the possibility of further sanctions.
"I don't see it as a situation where you have a certified part that's been altered or anything like that," Hendrick said. "I walked through the garage and looked at other cars and the fenders and where they've been pushed down and pulled out.
"It's going to be tough to do. I wish we could stamp the bodies and give them to us. Just give us a body that's stamped, we'll put it on the car and that's it. If it's got a serial number on it from NASCAR and we haven't altered the serial number, we're in good shape."
Hendrick didn't dwell on any possible penalties, saying his immediate concern is Sunday's race.
"It's already slowed the momentum and we're going to suffer through this race [Sunday]," Hendrick said. "On a road course, when they string out, you're a quarter of a mile behind and you're not going to make that up. It will have to be good strategy and get the best finish that we can. We've had good momentum and this will tell what we're made of. We just gotta suck it up and do the best with what we've got.
"We want to play by the rules. I don't enjoy this, the guys don't enjoy this and I'm sure NASCAR doesn't enjoy this. It's an interpretation of what's OK and what's not OK, and that's tough."
Hendrick argued that without laser-measuring devices at the track, exact specifications could not be determined, saying "I bet if you took the top 10 cars that finish this race to the [R&D] center and you take a coordinate machine and measure them, they're going to be off.
"There is no way humanly possible you can hold tolerances closer than you do a factory car that is built by General Motors, Ford or Chrysler."
Hendrick admitted he might have under-estimated NASCAR's seriousness in enforcing its strict standards for the COT.
"We hate it happened," Hendrick said. "I would like to think when you come in and you've got something that needs correcting the guys would say, 'We don't like the looks of this -- fix it,' rather than go through all this. But they're the boss and we live by the rules."
Owner believes crew chiefs did not bend the rules
By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
June 23, 2007
07:54 PM EDT
type size: + -SONOMA, Calif. -- Owner Rick Hendrick ardently defended two of his four race teams at Infineon Raceway on Saturday, one day after the cars of Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson were held out of practice and qualifying for Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350.
Gordon and Johnson's Chevrolet failed initial inspection when the dimensions of their front fenders were deemed to be outside NASCAR tolerances.
The infraction forces Gordon, the defending champion of the event and the Nextel Cup points leader, to line his No. 24 Chevrolet up 41st and Johnson, the defending Cup champion, next to Gordon in 42nd.
"I wish we could stamp the bodies and give them to us. If it's got a serial number on it from NASCAR and we haven't altered the serial number, we're in good shape."
Rick HendrickBoth men practiced Saturday, with Gordon third in the first practice and both he and Johnson in the top 10 in Happy Hour.
"This is a penalty," Hendrick said adamantly. "We're behind everybody else because we didn't get any track time [Friday]. Starting in the rear, nobody's ever done it and won a race here.
"This is a big penalty not being able to qualify and get a good starting spot and a good pit spot. I'm not going to say it's impossible [to overcome] but we're just hoping for a good finish. If these two cars finish in the top 10 [Sunday] I'll be real happy."
NASCAR indicated further sanctions might be forthcoming after next week's competition meetings, and Hendrick said he had already begun pleading his case.
"We'll have to see what the penalty is," Hendrick said. "But I don't think that the penalty fits the crime in this case, when you're talking about the top of a fender and you're doing it by hand.
"Is somebody going to decide a championship that way? That'll be an awfully tough deal."
Hendrick is trying to make a case that his men did nothing new with their adjustments.
"Well, I don't necessarily say they bent the rules -- I think they thought they were working inside an area in which they could," Hendrick said. "The fenders on the car are sitting out there in front of God and everybody, so if you're going to try to do something to gain an advantage you wouldn't do it rolling through inspection.
"I think it's a gray area and this Car of Tomorrow is going to be hard, unless you've got a digital machine here and you're going to coordinates-measure everything, you're going to be in a gray area -- and then what happens?
"It's going to be tough, as we go forward, on what's intentional and what's accidental and how they handle it, so you're definitely going to have to show up with these things measured up."
He even said, given a six-race suspension to Dale Earnhardt Inc. crew chief Tony Eury Jr. along with severe monetary and points penalties for the first COT violation, that he couldn't definitely advise his crews not to explore gray areas.
"Yeah, but what's gray?" Hendrick said. "When they send out a bulletin and say, 'You mess with this part and you're going to get a stiff deal?' And then you look at an area of the body that's hand-made -- I don't know.
"We're just going to have to go back and make sure that we know what the tolerances are and we stay there. Whatever happens, we wish it hadn't. We came out here to try to win this race and now we're going to try to survive it. We've already gotten a big penalty, so we'll go on."
Hendrick said the reason his cars for drivers Casey Mears and Kyle Busch passed inspection and the others did not was because the 24 and 48 are prepared in a shop separate from their teammates.
While he cited the fact that the COT machines from the five previous Hendrick Motorsports victories -- the first five COT races this season -- had been painstakingly inspected by NASCAR at its research and development center in Concord, N.C., he acknowledged the possibility of further sanctions.
"I don't see it as a situation where you have a certified part that's been altered or anything like that," Hendrick said. "I walked through the garage and looked at other cars and the fenders and where they've been pushed down and pulled out.
"It's going to be tough to do. I wish we could stamp the bodies and give them to us. Just give us a body that's stamped, we'll put it on the car and that's it. If it's got a serial number on it from NASCAR and we haven't altered the serial number, we're in good shape."
Hendrick didn't dwell on any possible penalties, saying his immediate concern is Sunday's race.
"It's already slowed the momentum and we're going to suffer through this race [Sunday]," Hendrick said. "On a road course, when they string out, you're a quarter of a mile behind and you're not going to make that up. It will have to be good strategy and get the best finish that we can. We've had good momentum and this will tell what we're made of. We just gotta suck it up and do the best with what we've got.
"We want to play by the rules. I don't enjoy this, the guys don't enjoy this and I'm sure NASCAR doesn't enjoy this. It's an interpretation of what's OK and what's not OK, and that's tough."
Hendrick argued that without laser-measuring devices at the track, exact specifications could not be determined, saying "I bet if you took the top 10 cars that finish this race to the [R&D] center and you take a coordinate machine and measure them, they're going to be off.
"There is no way humanly possible you can hold tolerances closer than you do a factory car that is built by General Motors, Ford or Chrysler."
Hendrick admitted he might have under-estimated NASCAR's seriousness in enforcing its strict standards for the COT.
"We hate it happened," Hendrick said. "I would like to think when you come in and you've got something that needs correcting the guys would say, 'We don't like the looks of this -- fix it,' rather than go through all this. But they're the boss and we live by the rules."
