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Why bother even trying anymore?

Written by Ray Champagne · May 29, 2008

Before the race even started last week, both the Haas CNC cars were confiscated by NASCAR for what it deemed “rules infractions”.  If you haven’t already read it, my colleague John Davison here at FastMachines wrote about the specifics of the violations on Tuesday.  Basically, it boiled down to the team moving the wing by changing the bolt locations where the wing meets the car.  Not on one car, but both the #66 driven by Scott Riggs and the #70 driven by Johnny Sauter.  It was announced on Wednesday by NASCAR officials that the penalties for the drivers, team owners, and crew chiefs were some of the stiffest ever handed out:

  • Scott Riggs penalized 150 driver points
  • Joe Custer, owner of the #66, penalized 150 owner points
  • Johnny Sauter penalized 150 driver points
  • Margaret Haas, owner of the #70, penalized 150 owner points
  • Bootie Barker and Dave Skog, crew chiefs for the cars must pay a $100,000 fine each, plus serve a suspension for the next 6 Sprint Cup events, and are on probation until Dec 31, 2008
  • Car chiefs Derick Jennings and Thomas Harris suspended for the next 6 Sprint Cup events
  • Both cars have been indefinitely impounded and will stay at the NASCAR R&D shop

Wow.  One really has to wonder what the motivation and thought process was behind this maneuver.  Was it really worth that much?  Did they really think that they were going to get away with it?

NASCAR has made it perfectly clear that they are not going to put up with any BS with this new car, and they intentionally spent millions of dollars in research and development to make the car so that it has no wiggle room, rules-wise.  Teams are expected to play fair, and they were given plenty of warning that they were going to play hardball when they found someone trying to gray an otherwise black and white line.  In case anyone doubted the powers to be, they flexed their muscles early and often when teams tried to pull the occasional fast one.  Ask Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, or Michael Waltrip Racing.  They’ll tell you:

Don’t mess with the bull, or you’ll get the horns.  This ain’t your Daddy’s NASCAR no mo’.

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2 Responses to “Why bother even trying anymore?”

  1. Why even bother trying anymore? « Ray’s Weblog on May 29th, 2008 7:50 pm

    [...] for the drivers, team owners, and crew chiefs were some of the stiffest ever handed out:  Read more over at Fastmachines.com Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Do you really want to walk a mile in her [...]

  2. Why bother even trying anymore? on May 29th, 2008 8:50 pm

    [...] Go to the author’s original blog: Why bother even trying anymore? [...]

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