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fastfordfan
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Read It ALL Not Just One Sentenance
Hendrick Motorsports and crew chief Chad Knaus deserve to smile. They deserve to have the last laugh.
Now that they have won their appeal and NASCAR officials have been overruled and embarrassed by their own judge, Hendrick officials deserve to stick out their chests and fire back at those who have criticized them in the last month.
They can demand that their detractors eat a little crow after NASCAR Chief Appellate Officer John Middlebrook rescinded the six-week suspensions for Knaus and car chief Ron Malec and overturned Jimmie Johnson’s points penalty, penalties that were originally issued by NASCAR for questionable C-posts on Johnson’s car.
The Hendrick camp must feel vindicated after many – including myself – had written and said that the team had received the appropriate penalties for their alleged infractions at Daytona.
So while the crow is simmering in a pot, what are NASCAR fans supposed to think now?
In some ways, because Middlebrook didn’t explain his decision and still allowed Knaus’ $100,000 fine to stand, we really don’t know anything more than we knew three weeks ago when NASCAR initially issued the penalties.
We don’t know exactly why NASCAR took the C-posts from Johnson’s car. Did the posts, which run from the roof to the rear deck of the car, not appear to be the appropriate thickness? Did they bow out more than what NASCAR wanted?
And if Hendrick crewmen didn’t alter them during the offseason, why did they catch NASCAR’s attention at Daytona after being approved last year?
However it went down, it appears that Middlebrook felt NASCAR penalized Hendrick unjustly. Either the violation was far from egregious in his mind or he felt Hendrick didn’t get a fair shake.
It’s mind boggling how NASCAR could falter so badly. Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby and Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton typically don’t mess this stuff up, especially to this extreme. If penalties get changed, they typically are reduced, not slashed into a meaningless fine.
Pemberton and Darby typically are so thorough that there are few, if any, cracks in their case. They simply don’t take car parts from competitors unless they are certain those parts violate the rules or have not been approved.
It remains hard to fathom that the C-posts were unaltered and yet had been previously approved by NASCAR.
If they were exactly the same, then Hendrick had a legitimate complaint. Then again, it seems so difficult to prove that Hendrick never altered them.
Included in Hendrick’s argument: NASCAR never placed templates on the car; and NASCAR allowed 20 other teams to alter their cars at Daytona to make them legal. Included in that 20 were three teams that were specifically allowed to grind on their C-posts.
Was this just a horrible lapse in judgment, or did a NASCAR official simply make a mistake?
Were NASCAR officials determined to nail Knaus after he was overheard telling Johnson to “crack” the back of his car if he won at Talladega last October so that it wouldn’t be too low in postrace inspection? Were NASCAR officials still so incensed over that – as some have speculated – that they didn’t give Knaus the same opportunity to correct the Daytona car so it would pass inspection?
That’s possible, but doubtful. Darby specifically said NASCAR officials used gauges to determine that the Hendrick team couldn’t just grind the C-posts to correct the problem, so the parts were confiscated. The rules cited specifically cover the contours of the car and don’t mention templates. It seemed that Darby had confidence in why the C-posts were confiscated.
Maybe what persuaded Middlebrook to allow the fine to stand but rescind the suspensions and points penalty was the fact that Hendrick and Knaus were not allowed to alter their car to make it legal while NASCAR allowed other teams to do so.
Or maybe Middlebrook felt that NASCAR never proved its case. Or that NASCAR gave Hendrick an indication that the car was legal through past inspections, and then suddenly changed its position.
Some in the anti-Hendrick camp will say that team owner Rick Hendrick had an inside advantage as a longtime friend of Middlebrook. But NASCAR President Mike Helton also is a longtime friend of Middlebrook. And why would NASCAR hire someone as its final judge who has an incentive to not just rule against the sanctioning body but to undermine its authority?
This ruling did more than just go against the sanctioning body. It embarrassed NASCAR and damaged its credibility in terms of issuing penalties for future violations.
So where does NASCAR go from here? If NASCAR officials don’t change how they inspect the C-posts and other areas of the car, then they are simply being arrogant and setting themselves up to lose more appeals. They need to make sure no doubt exists when they make a ruling in the future.
That is possible. Prosecutors lose cases all the time. Judges have opinions reversed. They move on and they go on to the next trial.
But they learn. And NASCAR needs to do just that.
Meanwhile, those who believe that NASCAR must continue to treat violators with an iron fist will have to wait until the next penalty and next appeal to see if NASCAR still operates that way.
After this process, it makes one wonder whether the Hendrick team just got lucky, was treated unfairly or was simply the unfortunate victim of a horrible mistake by NASCAR officials.
This ugly incident has cast some doubt on NASCAR and created questions about its credibility because now fans are mad at NASCAR for either treating Hendrick unfairly or for simply bungling the inspection process and not getting the alleged infraction and penalties right.
The bottom line is this: We don’t know if Knaus and Hendrick got what they deserved. And after the next penalty, we won’t know if the penalty fits the alleged crime.
The stunning reversal and the lack of explanation in this ruling just creates more confusion instead of delivering any clarity on what went wrong – either on the car or in the inspection process.
Hendrick Motorsports and crew chief Chad Knaus deserve to smile. They deserve to have the last laugh.
Now that they have won their appeal and NASCAR officials have been overruled and embarrassed by their own judge, Hendrick officials deserve to stick out their chests and fire back at those who have criticized them in the last month.
They can demand that their detractors eat a little crow after NASCAR Chief Appellate Officer John Middlebrook rescinded the six-week suspensions for Knaus and car chief Ron Malec and overturned Jimmie Johnson’s points penalty, penalties that were originally issued by NASCAR for questionable C-posts on Johnson’s car.
The Hendrick camp must feel vindicated after many – including myself – had written and said that the team had received the appropriate penalties for their alleged infractions at Daytona.
So while the crow is simmering in a pot, what are NASCAR fans supposed to think now?
In some ways, because Middlebrook didn’t explain his decision and still allowed Knaus’ $100,000 fine to stand, we really don’t know anything more than we knew three weeks ago when NASCAR initially issued the penalties.
We don’t know exactly why NASCAR took the C-posts from Johnson’s car. Did the posts, which run from the roof to the rear deck of the car, not appear to be the appropriate thickness? Did they bow out more than what NASCAR wanted?
And if Hendrick crewmen didn’t alter them during the offseason, why did they catch NASCAR’s attention at Daytona after being approved last year?
However it went down, it appears that Middlebrook felt NASCAR penalized Hendrick unjustly. Either the violation was far from egregious in his mind or he felt Hendrick didn’t get a fair shake.
It’s mind boggling how NASCAR could falter so badly. Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby and Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton typically don’t mess this stuff up, especially to this extreme. If penalties get changed, they typically are reduced, not slashed into a meaningless fine.
Pemberton and Darby typically are so thorough that there are few, if any, cracks in their case. They simply don’t take car parts from competitors unless they are certain those parts violate the rules or have not been approved.
It remains hard to fathom that the C-posts were unaltered and yet had been previously approved by NASCAR.
If they were exactly the same, then Hendrick had a legitimate complaint. Then again, it seems so difficult to prove that Hendrick never altered them.
Included in Hendrick’s argument: NASCAR never placed templates on the car; and NASCAR allowed 20 other teams to alter their cars at Daytona to make them legal. Included in that 20 were three teams that were specifically allowed to grind on their C-posts.
Was this just a horrible lapse in judgment, or did a NASCAR official simply make a mistake?
Were NASCAR officials determined to nail Knaus after he was overheard telling Johnson to “crack” the back of his car if he won at Talladega last October so that it wouldn’t be too low in postrace inspection? Were NASCAR officials still so incensed over that – as some have speculated – that they didn’t give Knaus the same opportunity to correct the Daytona car so it would pass inspection?
That’s possible, but doubtful. Darby specifically said NASCAR officials used gauges to determine that the Hendrick team couldn’t just grind the C-posts to correct the problem, so the parts were confiscated. The rules cited specifically cover the contours of the car and don’t mention templates. It seemed that Darby had confidence in why the C-posts were confiscated.
Maybe what persuaded Middlebrook to allow the fine to stand but rescind the suspensions and points penalty was the fact that Hendrick and Knaus were not allowed to alter their car to make it legal while NASCAR allowed other teams to do so.
Or maybe Middlebrook felt that NASCAR never proved its case. Or that NASCAR gave Hendrick an indication that the car was legal through past inspections, and then suddenly changed its position.
Some in the anti-Hendrick camp will say that team owner Rick Hendrick had an inside advantage as a longtime friend of Middlebrook. But NASCAR President Mike Helton also is a longtime friend of Middlebrook. And why would NASCAR hire someone as its final judge who has an incentive to not just rule against the sanctioning body but to undermine its authority?
This ruling did more than just go against the sanctioning body. It embarrassed NASCAR and damaged its credibility in terms of issuing penalties for future violations.
So where does NASCAR go from here? If NASCAR officials don’t change how they inspect the C-posts and other areas of the car, then they are simply being arrogant and setting themselves up to lose more appeals. They need to make sure no doubt exists when they make a ruling in the future.
That is possible. Prosecutors lose cases all the time. Judges have opinions reversed. They move on and they go on to the next trial.
But they learn. And NASCAR needs to do just that.
Meanwhile, those who believe that NASCAR must continue to treat violators with an iron fist will have to wait until the next penalty and next appeal to see if NASCAR still operates that way.
After this process, it makes one wonder whether the Hendrick team just got lucky, was treated unfairly or was simply the unfortunate victim of a horrible mistake by NASCAR officials.
This ugly incident has cast some doubt on NASCAR and created questions about its credibility because now fans are mad at NASCAR for either treating Hendrick unfairly or for simply bungling the inspection process and not getting the alleged infraction and penalties right.
The bottom line is this: We don’t know if Knaus and Hendrick got what they deserved. And after the next penalty, we won’t know if the penalty fits the alleged crime.
The stunning reversal and the lack of explanation in this ruling just creates more confusion instead of delivering any clarity on what went wrong – either on the car or in the inspection process.
