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What, then, is that saying about NASCAR’s penalties? Certainly, they aren’t tough enough and teams aren’t afraid of the consequences of being caught.
Lepage also suggested that pressure from sponsors isn’t has much as some might believe. In fact, he said, because the media names the drivers and crew chiefs only, the sponsors are typically left above it all. Travis Barrett, GreenWhiteChecker
David Poole - SunHerald: Suspended crew chiefs will face further restrictions on what they’re allowed to do while serving their penalties, NASCAR chairman and chief executive officer Brian France indicated Tuesday.
“We just had a meeting on that today,” France said. “We will be addressing that very shortly.”
04 July 2007
Buddy Shacklette - AHN Sports Motor Sports Reporter: Currently, a suspension prevents a crew chief from being in any area where he needs his NASCAR license. That includes the garage and pit road, but crew chiefs can be in motor homes or in the grandstands at or around a track.
Penalized NASCAR Nextel Cup teams may or may not be getting the message about cheating and car modification, so NASCAR CEO Brian France said the sanctioning body will be addressing that issue soon.
Suspended crew chiefs that allegedly do their jobs from remote locations near the track are heading the issues to be addressed.
04 July 2007
Jenna Fryer The Associated Press: “We’d like not to get to (suspending drivers),” chairman Brian France said Tuesday. “We’d like to make the deterrent, a portion of the penalty, significant enough that that isn’t necessary for us to do. “But are we willing to go there? Of course we would. We have in the past and we will in the future. We’re not hoping to do that. That’s sort of a death penalty.”
France also said NASCAR is investigating reports that crew chiefs Chad Knaus, Steve Letarte and Tony Eury Jr. were at New Hampshire International Speedway last weekend despite their suspensions. All three are banned from the garage area during their suspensions, but the national television and radio broadcasts reported the Hendrick Motorsports crew chiefs were on track property and in communication with their drivers.
04 July 2007
David Newton from ESPN.com: NASCAR plans to address the issue of suspended crew chiefs continuing to do their jobs from locations at the track but outside of the garage.
Crew chief Tony Eury Jr., for example, reportedly worked with Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s team last weekend from a motorcoach parked on a hill outside New Hampshire International Speedway as he completed a six-week suspension.
NASCAR chairman Brian France said that insults the integrity of the penalty.
“We just had a meeting about that,” France said during a Tuesday afternoon conference call. “We will be, if that all is accurate, addressing that shortly.”
27 June 2007
Jim Pedley - Kansas City Star: They’ve got darn-good drivers at Hendrick Motorsports, and they make darn-fast race cars. But you have to wonder about the team’s ability to learn the lessons of life in the world of NASCAR.
Yesterday afternoon, the folks at Hendrick were smacked with some very harsh penalties from NASCAR because two of their cars were found to be illegal Friday at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.
As harsh as the penalties are—loss of 100 driver points each for Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, six-race suspensions for their crew chiefs and $100,000 fines for each crew chief—they should not come as a surprise.
26 June 2007
Ed Hinton From Chicago Tribune: Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, NASCAR’s two winningest drivers this season, were docked 100 championship points each and their crew chiefs suspended for six races Tuesday for technical violations last weekend at Sonoma, Calif.
The crew chiefs, Steve Letarte for Gordon and Chad Knaus for Johnson, also were fined $100,000 each and placed on probation until Dec. 31. Team owner Rick Hendrick was penalized 100 owner points for Gordon’s car. Gordon, listed as owner of Johnson’s car within the Hendrick Motorsports organization, was penalized 100 owner points.
24 June 2007
Darryl Matsuda - San Jose Mercury News: Today’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma marks the road-course debut for NASCAR’s new vehicle, which has been run in six of 15 NASCAR Nextel Cup points races in 2007.
To say that the transition to the Car of Tomorrow has been seamless or that the reviews have been stellar would be an overstatement. Truth is, driver complaints have been the norm since the COT, as it is known, was first raced at Bristol Motor Speedway in the fifth event of the season.
After one of the early races, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said, “It’s ridiculous that these cars are so bad. I hope NASCAR listens to the drivers and teams when we say these cars don’t drive worth a damn.”
