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Wednesday, July 4, 2007
NASCAR penalties might get tougher
Article By Dustin Long - Staff Writer
NASCAR chairman Brian France hinted Tuesday that suspensions to crew chiefs and other team members for infractions might become more severe.
France's comments, during a conference call with reporters, came after Tony Eury Jr.'s brazen display this past weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway. Eury, Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief, served the final race of his seven-week suspension, but was visible outside the track.
A suspended crew chief is not allowed in the garage or pits and can't communicate with the driver on the team's radio when the car is on the track. Other than that, anything goes in this technological world of instant messages, e-mails and cell-phone calls. Typically, suspended crew chiefs keep a low profile, although they are not violating their suspension by being in public areas of the track.
Eury parked his motor home on a hill along the backstretch, where he could see all of the 1.058-mile speedway. He sat in a lawn chair atop his motor home with a computer on his lap. Eury listened to the radio chatter between Earnhardt and the team and took notes.
Asked if such actions were a crew chief's way of skirting a suspension, France said: "We just had a meeting on that with Mike Helton, myself and others. We will be ... if that all is accurate ... we will be addressing that shortly."
Helton is NASCAR president.
France offered no timetable and wouldn't say what actions NASCAR officials might take. The sanctioning body likely will try to curtail what Eury did because series officials don't like to be shown up.
France also said NASCAR will be "very tough on people that test us with the Car of Tomorrow. The whole premise is built around not being able to do much, fudging much, with the car."
He pointed to recent penalties to the Hendrick Motorsports teams of drivers Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson for failing an initial inspection at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.
NASCAR prohibited those teams from one practice session and qualifying, forcing both to start at the rear of the field. It was the first time NASCAR had done that in several years.
Forcing both to start at the rear "pretty much eliminated them from contention of winning that race in our view," France said.
France's comment was a rare acknowledgement by a series official that preventing a team from winning played into what penalty to issue.
Gordon, the Nextel Cup series points leader, finished seventh in the race, and Johnson was 17th.
France said series officials would not customize penalties for each team based on circumstances.
"We will find the right penalties, believe me," he said. "A lot of people, including the Hendrick organization, thought we went too far. It's a balance.
"The question always is: Are we putting the right punishment to the crime? We could have any particular penalty structure, and we could face somebody that is willing to think they can outsmart us and get through something, whatever. They may be in a desperation situation, taking a risk.
"We're very confident, that, as Mike Helton said over a year ago, we're going to escalate these penalties to a level that it's not worth taking the risk."
Greensboro news-record.com
NASCAR penalties might get tougher
Article By Dustin Long - Staff Writer
NASCAR chairman Brian France hinted Tuesday that suspensions to crew chiefs and other team members for infractions might become more severe.
France's comments, during a conference call with reporters, came after Tony Eury Jr.'s brazen display this past weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway. Eury, Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief, served the final race of his seven-week suspension, but was visible outside the track.
A suspended crew chief is not allowed in the garage or pits and can't communicate with the driver on the team's radio when the car is on the track. Other than that, anything goes in this technological world of instant messages, e-mails and cell-phone calls. Typically, suspended crew chiefs keep a low profile, although they are not violating their suspension by being in public areas of the track.
Eury parked his motor home on a hill along the backstretch, where he could see all of the 1.058-mile speedway. He sat in a lawn chair atop his motor home with a computer on his lap. Eury listened to the radio chatter between Earnhardt and the team and took notes.
Asked if such actions were a crew chief's way of skirting a suspension, France said: "We just had a meeting on that with Mike Helton, myself and others. We will be ... if that all is accurate ... we will be addressing that shortly."
Helton is NASCAR president.
France offered no timetable and wouldn't say what actions NASCAR officials might take. The sanctioning body likely will try to curtail what Eury did because series officials don't like to be shown up.
France also said NASCAR will be "very tough on people that test us with the Car of Tomorrow. The whole premise is built around not being able to do much, fudging much, with the car."
He pointed to recent penalties to the Hendrick Motorsports teams of drivers Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson for failing an initial inspection at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.
NASCAR prohibited those teams from one practice session and qualifying, forcing both to start at the rear of the field. It was the first time NASCAR had done that in several years.
Forcing both to start at the rear "pretty much eliminated them from contention of winning that race in our view," France said.
France's comment was a rare acknowledgement by a series official that preventing a team from winning played into what penalty to issue.
Gordon, the Nextel Cup series points leader, finished seventh in the race, and Johnson was 17th.
France said series officials would not customize penalties for each team based on circumstances.
"We will find the right penalties, believe me," he said. "A lot of people, including the Hendrick organization, thought we went too far. It's a balance.
"The question always is: Are we putting the right punishment to the crime? We could have any particular penalty structure, and we could face somebody that is willing to think they can outsmart us and get through something, whatever. They may be in a desperation situation, taking a risk.
"We're very confident, that, as Mike Helton said over a year ago, we're going to escalate these penalties to a level that it's not worth taking the risk."
Greensboro news-record.com
