Three Cup crew chiefs fined and suspended

T

TonyB

Guest
NASCAR.com

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR has announced that rule infractions this past weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway have resulted in the suspension of three Nextel Cup Series crew chiefs.

The No. 48 Chevrolet team received three penalties, due to the car's roof height being too low in post-race inspection -- a violation of Section 12-4-A of the Cup series' rule book (actions detrimental to stock car racing) and Section 12-4-Q (car, car parts, components, and/or equipment used that do not conform to NASCAR rules).

A penalty of 25 driver points dropped Jimmie Johnson -- the race winner at Las Vegas -- back to second place in the standings, 10 behind reigning series champion Kurt Busch. Chad Knaus, Johnson's crew chief, has been suspended from competition for the next two races and fined $35,000; Jeff Gordon, the No. 48 car owner, has been penalized 25 owner points.

Todd Berrier, crew chief for the No. 29 Chevrolet driven by Kevin Harvick, has been suspended for the next four races and fined $25,000. Those penalties resulted from the No. 29 having an unapproved fuel filler and unapproved fuel cell vent. The car was in violation of Sections 12-4-A and 12-4-Q.

In addition to Berrier's penalties, Harvick has been penalized 25 driver championship points, dropping him from eighth to 10th in the driver standings, while car owner Richard Childress loses 25 car owner championship points.

Alan Gustafson, crew chief for the No. 5 Chevrolet driven by Kyle Busch, has been suspended for two races and fined $25,000, due to the car's quarter-panel heights being too high in post-race inspection -- also violations of Sections 12-4-A and 12-4-Q. Busch has been assessed 25 driver points, dropping him from 18th to 22nd in the standings; car owner Rick Hendrick loses 25 owner points.

In addition:

• Harold Holly, crew chief for the No. 32 Chevrolet driven by Bobby Hamilton Jr., was fined $5,000 because of the No. 32 having an unapproved deck lid, a violation of Sections 12-4-A and 12-4-Q that was determined during opening-day inspection.

• John Latchford, crew chief for the No. 89 Dodge driven by Morgan Shepherd, was fined $1,000 because of an unapproved fire suppression agent found during opening-day inspection. That also violated Sections 12-4A and 12-4Q.

• Larry Carter, crew chief for the No. 2 Dodge driven by Rusty Wallace, was fined $1,000. During opening-day inspection, the car's shoulder harness did not have a date tag displayed, a violation of Sections 17.2-C (and 12-4-A).
 
Wow!! I think this is all a big surprise. The fines and the points to all the teams aren't really a surprise, but...... the suspensions!
I figured because of Barriers gloating and the fact how obveous it was he might get suspended a week, but never dreamed 4 weeks!!
Guess the moral of this story is; don't take a swing at Papa if you don't want your butt blistered. LOL

I also didn't think the other 2 would get suspended.

I guess NASCAR is sending a message, It's their sandbox and if you want to play in it you will abide by the rules. If you don't like it fine, go race in another series.

As long as NASCAR continues with the same punishment for the same crime, it should get everyone in the garage areas attention.
 
I find it rather interesting that the two violations which could well mean the difference between life or death in a crash situation, i.e. the unapproved fire suppression agent and an undated shoulder harness, received only menial fines while things such as a car too low or a car too high (I've noticed that no one seems to be saying how much these cars were too high or too low) after a 500 mile race receive large dollar penalties and crew chief suspensions.

As for Mr. Berrier, if he had been working for me last Friday, he would have been standing in the unemployment line Monday morning.
Perhaps someone should stuff a pair of dirty undershorts (maybe Tony Stewart has a pair he'd be willing to donate) in Berrier's mouth and apply a liberal amount of duct tape around his lower facial area.
His conduct was an insult to his employer, his teammates, his driver, the entire family of NASCAR competitors and most of all to the fans themselves.
Perhaps there's a street stock team somewhere in the country who is desperate for a crew chief and could use his talking talents?
He certainly has no business at the upper levels of the sport.

While we are not being told the whole story on these violations, it certainly appears that NASCAR is more concerned with the quality of its show than it is with the safety of its players.

Then again, the easiest component to replace on a race car is the driver.
 
wow......i was expecting something...but not suspensions like this...surprising.
 
Why not just disqualify the #48??? He clearly had an aero advantage on the field with the roof and remember the flaired out fender they called him on during the race...
 
thats what i dont understand...no other sports take points off of the board...but if they find that the team cheated they will tyipcally make them forfeit the games inwhich they cheated in. to me, if your going to take points away...its an all or nothing thing...dont take points away or take all the points for the race away.
 
Makes me wonder how much they have been getting away with before last weekend. I have no problem with pushing the rules envelope to the limit---but out and out blatant cheating is not good for the sport. Wonder if sponsors are getting upset?
 
boB, I'm with you about the safety violations being relegated to a misdemeanor.

As for Berrier, ..... never mind. He's not worth the words it would take me to tell you what I think of him.
 
What I don't understand about this whole situation is with Harvick. On top of having his crew chief suspended like the others, points taken like the others and fined money like the others, his qualifying run was disqualified but Johnson and Busch were able to keep their positions in the race. That seems fair to me... :rolleyes:
 
Not sure how Johnson and Busch would lose their positions as their infractions were post race not pre race.
 
It's not Knaus's first time to get caught.

7-10-2002
Chad Knaus, crew chief of the #48 Chevy, was fined $25,000 and his team was also penalized 25 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Championship driver points as well as 25 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Championship owner points. Knaus' NASCAR Winston Cup team was penalized under Section 12-4-A of the 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup Series rule book: "Actions detrimental to stock car racing: offset mounting bolts for the front of the truck trailing arms

Jayski's archives.
http://www.jayski.com/past/2002/020708.htm

It's on this page.
 
i now see how johnsons car was so good, i find it a little strange that the top two cars were both cheating and from the same team. i think johnson should have more points taken away. whats 25 points anyway, about 4 positions? And by the way 66 mustang, harvick ended up doin awsome as usual so the qualifying thing didnt really matter untill he got points docked
 
whats 25 points? ask Jamie McMurray....he was penelized 25 points last season...and the missed the chase by 10 points....25 points can make or break your season.
 
This Buds For Me said:
whats 25 points? ask Jamie McMurray....he was penelized 25 points last season...and the missed the chase by 10 points....25 points can make or break your season.
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You got that right....
 
Knaus finally got popped. According to him, a bracket bolt backed its way off & caused the car to be too low.Marty Smith has also jumped on the JJ bandwagon defending him. Reality Check......many cars have been docked for not blatantly cheating, but failing post race in the past few years. Make sure it's tight next time. Good to see no one will be above the law.
 
emon66 said:
i now see how johnsons car was so good, i find it a little strange that the top two cars were both cheating and from the same team. i think johnson should have more points taken away. whats 25 points anyway, about 4 positions? And by the way 66 mustang, harvick ended up doin awsome as usual so the qualifying thing didnt really matter untill he got points docked
Click to expand...

Yeah, but they still disqualified him. They didn't to Johnson. Thats what I have a problem with. Cheating is cheating so the punishments all need to be the same IMO.
 
Just heard on that nascar nation show that the 48 and 5 teams will appeal. but what shocks me is that rcr will appeal this also.
 
Scott Peterson is appealing his thing too!! :) Appeals are standard in NASCAR...........don't look for any overturning though. :p
 
It said on Nascar.com that Childress said he understood the need for the penelty. He will prolly appeal the length of the vacation that Berrier got. :growl: But I also don't think it will do either team any good. I have never heard on a appeal being won.
 
Gollum do you really think Todd will have a job to come back to next month? :)
 
If it was me he prolly wouldn't. But him and Harvick works pretty good together. So I say he will. But that's just a guess. :D
 
Appealing allows the Crew Chiefs to stay on top of their pit boxes until the process is over as well. This allows them time to get their ducks in order for when they have to take their invouluntary vacations.
 
N2racin, you've probably hit the nail about RC appealing.

I doubt the length of suspension will be shortened --- especially after Todd popped off publicly about what he did.

He shot NASCAR the middle finger --- they will not be kind.
 
Does appealing the matter really allow them to stay on the pit box?? If so then NASCAR needs to hear them ASAP, surely they realize it is a ploy to keep them there for Atlanta!!!
 
wolfcub said:
Does appealing the matter really allow them to stay on the pit box?? If so then NASCAR needs to hear them ASAP, surely they realize it is a ploy to keep them there for Atlanta!!!
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Yes they do. Shane Hmeil's CC was suspended for 4 races after CA, they appealed so he could CC for Mexico. I don't believe the appeal has been heard yet either so he was at LV and probably will be Atlanta too. :confused:
 
It's not the first time NASCAR has found issues with a car after the race.

something shifted or broke, the car was still driveable, the driver won. and not knowning it had help.

Oh well, ya get the punishment, cuz thems the rules. Again, not the first time.

wasn't it after a Daytona race that someones car was REALLY loose cuz his left rear shock gave out or something... and after the race, the team got knocked cuz of the break cuz the car didn't pass inspection? I can't remember the year, but, I believe that happeend. Tho, I can't recall who. (but I thought it was like Mark Martin or some Rousch driver)
 
Hasnt several people (experts,etc) said that what happened to jjs car didnt help his car any? Unlike the 5, and the 29.
 
I hope not. have'n a lower roof normally means less drag. which in turn makes it faster.
 
All i can say on this matter... I really would get to tech inspections early this week. I can only think of the wait to get through.
 
What I heard was that Johnson's car was not low enough to effectively make a difference in the drag coefficient. But, Kyle's was set off enough to make a difference. Harvick was just for the qualifying effort and wouldn't affect his racing except for the starting position.

Isn't this Johnson's 2nd time with this problem? I wonder how much they had to pay some engineer to figure out the exact tolerance for the bolt to be able to back out without falling out completely? They certainly earned their money...
 
I cracked up when I heard Marty Smith telling how it was actually a disadvantage for the #48 car. I don't know if he REALLY believes that, I would've thought he's been around the garage long enough to have not fallen for that. ROFLMBO!!

His statement made it sound like the rear 1/4s droped, lowering the spoiler which would be a real disadvantage because then the spoiler wouldn't work.
I guess I missed something, the infraction was for the "roof height" beng to low! Get it? The whole body dropped....... the distance from the top of the spoiler to the top of the roof remained the same....... NO disadvantage.. the ADVANTAGE of the whole body dropping is that it's much more aero, lower to the ground and cuts through the air better...BIG advantage.

The way Marty explained it is the 1/4s dropped but the roof stayed at the same height, then that would be a big disadvantage.
 
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