Rusty Wallace

[majestyx]

Posted on Fri, Oct. 11, 2002

NASCAR penalty peeves Rusty Wallace
By DAVID POOLE
The Charlotte Observer

Rusty Wallace's deficit to leader Tony Stewart in the Winston Cup points race is 25 points larger than it was when he left Talladega after last week's EA Sports 500 thanks to a penalty imposed by NASCAR.
Wallace lost 25 driver points and team owner Roger Penske lost 25 car owner points because of a violation in the thickness of the team's spoiler found during inspection before qualifying at Talladega.

"All I can tell you is that it's a major disappointment," Wallace said. "I didn't know anything about this spoiler. I know you've got to have rules, and rules are rules, but the more I thought about this I felt like the whole thing was uncalled for.

"There are car owner points and there are driver points. I wished they would have just taken the 25 owner points. ...It's upsetting, but there's nothing you can do about it. I've never seen anything like this changed. But I sure didn't see this coming."

 

[Blazing24]

Rusty has every right to be upset. The violation was found before the race and was reported that he was legal during the race. No infraction occured during the race. IMO, no foul...no penalty!

 

[Alaska]

I've been scratching my head ever since the points were grabbed. It just doesn't make sense but I guess a lot of stuff about NASCAR doesn't.

At any rate, I've been waiting for you old timers to splain it to me.

 

[TexasRaceLady]

Here's the best I can find out.
Earlier in the summer, NASCAR decided that fines alone were not keeping the teams honest, and warned that points were going to be lost if the "creative engineering" wasn't stopped.

Apparently, teams were getting caught before inspection, parts confiscated, then did the same thing after the inspection. So, now they lose points.

 

[Gollum]

I agree that fines alone didn't have much affect. These guys are makeing a lot of money. So fines dont hurt. So take points to. But to take points away fron a man that run a race Legal. That is streching things a bit. Fine maybe but no points.

 

[TNBurtonFan]

I honestly think that nascar makes up the rules as they go. They get pretty rediculous with their fining. Some drivers they fine some others gets by with it.