Knaus on the penalty

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Knaus: Penalty just part of the job
By DAVID POOLE
The Charlotte Observer

Chad Knaus, crew chief for Winston Cup rookie star Jimmie Johnson, said Friday the points penalty and fine levied by NASCAR against his team this week comes with the territory.
"Being creative is my job," Knaus said. "If I am going to get fined and penalized for being creative, then that’s just part of it."

The team had 25 driver points and 25 car owner points deducted and Knaus was fined $25,000 for the infraction, which inolved offset bolts on the front trailing arms of Johnson’s Chevrolet in inspection before qualifying for last weekend’s Pepsi 400.

NASCAR regulates how far these bolts can be from the springs in the car’s suspension. Offsetting them in effect softens the springs, possibly allowing the car to settle lower toward the track when air is pressing on it.

"This was performance-enhancing in the opinion of our officials," said Jim Hunter NASCAR vice president for communications. "In layman's terms it would help the car’s aerodynamics."

Hunter said a NASCAR inspector found the bolts when he was up under the car in inspection before qualifying last weekend. The nature of the violation and previous NASCAR warnings that teams could start facing more than just fines for violations.

"Fines don't seem to be getting it done," Hunter said. "So, this was an opportunity for us. This particular infraction we think warranted a loss in points. …I think this will get the message across. I guess we’ll see."

Knaus said the penalty "could have been a lot worse," and added that he’s convinced his Chevy wasn’t the only car with "creative elements" on at Daytona.

"I’ll guarantee you a lot of the cars out there weren’t the fairest cars, or the most strict on the rules," Knaus said. "A lot of people go out to the speedways and try to find an edge. They find it in many, many different ways."

"The No. 48 Chevrolet is one of the most legal cars in this garage. The reason our car is going so fast is we have an awesome driver and an awesome team and that’s all there is to it."
 
Accept your penaly but don't mention other cars, it makes you look like a whiner.:eek:
 
everyone does it..................it's like telling a two year old not to touch something, but when you turn your back, they are reaching for it again..............good point though GordonFan
 
DEm, I should never just post an article until reading up a bit more.

This is I believe a full transcript of Knaus comments. The words are the same, but the connotation is quite a bit different from Mr. Pooles article.

CHAD KNAUS:

"We got caught with something that we thought was gong to be a little bit of an advantage for us. That was the first time we¹d actually tried it, was at Daytona this time. We hadn¹t tried it on previously in the year. We went out there, we were looking for a bit of an advantage. We needed something. We knew we weren¹t going to be quite as good as what we were at Talladega. Thought we had found something; NASCAR didn¹t like it, so they dinged us a little bit. That¹s just part of it. They¹re doing their job. They¹re really starting to crack down on people getting off into the gray areas and looking for new ways to do things. They¹re just trying to show everybody that look they¹re going to set a new precedent about the penalties and the fines."

ARE THEY MAKING AN EXAMPLE OF YOU?

"I think they¹re trying to send a message to the rest of the competitors out there that they¹re tired of it. That they don¹t want a table full of fines; they don¹t want a table full of parts every time they leave a superspeedway. They¹re tired of dealing with that. They got more important things to worry about. For them to start levying fines and penalties like that I think it¹s going to slow some things down on people cheating."

"I didn¹t really get into it too much with them. When John Darby calls you and tells you what you¹re going to do when you know that you were probably in the wrong by a little bit you just take it and go with it. There's nothing I can do about it. We went to Daytona, we tried to make our car as fast as we possibly can. They didn¹t like something on our car and the good thing about it is we know we¹re back here in Chicago this week."

ARE YOU SURPRISED IT WAS SOMETHING FOUND BEFORE QUALIFYING?

"Yeah, I was a little surprised about that. I knew that there was going to be some type of action taken, thinking that it would points, no, never crossed my mind. If you talk to some of the crew chiefs in the garage right now there¹s a lot of guys that are going to be watching their P¹s and Q¹s even pre-qualifying."

HOW DIFFERENT WAS THE SETUP?

"We just tried to do a little bit of creative engineering is all. It wasn¹t a safety issue; it wasn¹t even that much of a performance issue, but it was going to help us a little bit. You know, speedways, they¹re pretty tight."

"We basically just offset our trailing arm mounts a little bit to try to change the location of the rear springs a little bit. It really wasn¹t that big, but it was still an advantage for us if we were able to run it. We weren¹t, so we didn¹t have the advantage."

WOULD IT HAVE MADE THE CAR LOWER?

"Possibly. We don¹t even know that for sure. Like I said, that¹s the first time that we tried it. We had hoped it would be a gain, but we didn¹t know for sure."

WHEN DID THEY FIND IT?

"They found it Thursday morning at pre-qualifying inspection. Well, they found it before we even practiced. They found it while we were sitting in the garage, just like where we are now."

WHEN DID DARBY TELL YOU?

"He called me Wednesday morning."

DOES IT TAKE SOME OF THE FUN OUT OF BEING A CREW CHIEF?

"It makes you a little nervous to sign that inspection sheet every day. That¹s part of it, that¹s part of Winston Cup racing. If you¹re going to step up and you¹re going to be crew chief on one of these cars you¹ve got to be able to handle the media, and the press and NASCAR coming down on you when you need to be come down on. That¹s all just part of it."

"Being creative is my job, so if I¹m going to get fined or penalized for being creative then that¹s just part of it."

"At superspeedways they look for stuff that people might not do normally."

WERE YOU RATTED OUT?

"Who knows?"

PENALTY FAIR, POINTS TOO MUCH?

"It could have been a lot worse, how¹s that?"

WAS THE CAR AS FAIR AS OTHERS OUT THERE?

"I can guarantee that a lot of cars out there weren¹t the fairest cars out there or the most strictly on the rules either. A lot of people go out to the speedways to try to find an edge and they find it in many, many different ways."

OTHER PEOPLE HAVE BEEN PENALIZED FAR LESS AND FAR WORSE:

"Once again, NASCAR is raising the bar on the fines and the penalties right now. They¹re trying to cut back on a lot of people stepping out into the gray areas, people trying to be a little bit creative. They want to put an end to a lot of that stuff. The way to do that is to make an example and start to show people the new precedent. That¹s what it is."

ANY WARNING? "They had talked about doing some stuff that if the car was, say, too low after the race. If you¹d have won the raceŠAt the driver¹s meeting at Dover Mike Helton went up there and said they would take the points away from you if you were too low after the race. As far as for something like this, we didn¹t really know that, no."

"Let me tell you something, that race car right there, that No. 48 Lowe¹s Chevrolet is one of the most legal cars in this garage. The reason that car is going so fast is because we¹ve got an awesome race car driver, we¹ve got an awesome team, and that¹s all there is to it.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING ON W.C. CARS? "I¹ve been on Winston Cup cars now for 10 years."

HOW MUCH HAS THE GRAY AREA SHRUNK THAT YOU CAN WORK IN? "You could probably fit what was black and white on one page (before), now it takes a whole book to put everything in black and white."

"Like I said, we try to be creative, we try to make our cars as fast as possible. We¹re gong to look at things in a different light right now and if it¹s something that we feel like could fall under what they¹re talking about; we¹re definitely not going to do it. But, there¹s still areas that that you¹ve got to work just to maintain the speed on the race track."
 
I wish Chad had protested the points deduction. And from what I've read there, if the car is too low NASCAR will strip the points. Didn't Mark Martin have a low car this year? If I remember correctly, he was not stripped of points. I am sick of NASCAR changing the penalties and rules in the middle of the dang season.:mad: What sense does that make? Like someone said on the other board, what NASCAR does is the equivilant of every criminal getting two years more than the previous one for the same offense. It's the STUPIDEST thing I've ever heard of. They already did this with giving Mark Martin a higher fine than, Dale Jr. I believe for the same offense...the car being too low. Just plain STUPID!!!!!!!!:bs:
 
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