NASCAR Strips Ryan Newman Of New Hampshire Motor Speedway Victory
After Saturday's NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour F.W. Webb 100, division regulars Todd Szegedy and Ron Silk agonized over needing to get their teams better to stop the winning streak of Sprint Cup Series driver Ryan Newman at the 1.058-mile oval in Loudon.
On Wednesday NASCAR stopped the winning streak for them.
NASCAR announced Wednesday that Newman has been stripped of his victory in Saturday's F.W. Webb 100 and disqualified from the event.
NASCAR also suspended the team Newman drove with from competing on the Whelen Modified Tour for the remainder of the 2011 season.
Szegedy, who finished 1.9 seconds behind Newman on the track, will be award the victory.
Newman, who drives for Stewart-Haas Racing in the Sprint Cup Series and won Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, drove a Modified Tour car owned by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series crew chief Kevin "Bono" Manion in Saturday's event.
Manion is a crew chief at the Sprint Cup level for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing driver Jamie McMurray. Manion, a West Boylston, Mass. native, is a former full-time crew chief on the Whelen Modified Tour.
According to a release from NASCAR, the team was found to be in violation of Sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing); 12-4-I (car, car parts, components and/or equipment used do not conform to NASCAR rules); and 20D-5.9P (the intake manifold ports did not completely seal to the cylinder head ports. The use of metal shim-type intake manifold gaskets is not permitted) of the 2011 NASCAR rule book.
In addition to being stripped of the victory, the team was also stripped of the points and money earned for the event. The winner's purse was $14,700. The team was also stripped of the $650 won for earning the pole and another $800 in contingency bonus money.
As a team owner, Manion was suspended from regional touring series competition for the remainder of the 2011 season, along with the team's crew chief, Mike LaRochelle.
The team had planned on competing with Newman in the Whelen Modified Tour events at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on Aug. 24 and at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sept. 24.
It's a rare occurrence for NASCAR to deem an instance of cheating extraordinary enough strip a team of a victory days after the event has been completed, but not unprecedented.
NASCAR stripped Whelen Southern Modified Tour driver Burt Myers of his victory in the Made in American Whelen 300 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway on Sept. 20, 2008. Officially, NASCAR announced that Myers was in violation of the rules for not conforming to regulations involving transmission gear not being within the specified limits of the rule book.
Saturday was the eighth career start in the division for Newman dating back to the 2008 season. All of Newman's starts in the division have come driving for Manion. He made his first Whelen Modified Tour in Sept. 2008 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He made two starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and one start at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2009.
In 2010 Newman won both Modified Tour events at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and the event at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Newman easily won the pole Thursday for the F.W. Webb 100 and went on to lead 61 laps during the event, including the final 17. He was never worse than third place during the event. He spent the majority of the race in a three-car breakaway at the front that also included Szegedy and Ron Silk. At times during the event the pack of Newman, Szegedy and Silk had opened up as much as a 15-second lead over fourth place.
After the event, Newman's car was confiscated by NASCAR officials and taken to the NASCAR Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C. for further evaluation.
Newman became the third driver since the inception of the Modified Tour to be stripped of a victory by NASCAR following post race inspection. Interestingly, the driver who gets the win now thanks to Newman's penalty was the last driver in the series to be disqualified from a victory.
Szegedy, of Ridgefield, was stripped of victory in the 2004 Icebreaker at Thompson International Speedway for issues involving illegal rear end gear ratios. Mike Christopher of Wolcott lost a win at the Waterford Speedbowl in 2002 for an illegal carburetor and Jimmy Spencer had a win at Martinsville taken away in 1986 for a fuel cell violation.
