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Ford Fusion that won Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Edwards was resigned to breaking in another rocket at Atlanta Motor Speedway for this Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500. And that was before NASCAR decided it would give the No. 99 a closer look-see.
Officials took Edwards’ car to its Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C., for further observation after finding an issue during postrace inspection, specifically a missing lid from the oil reservoir tank that sits behind the driver. NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston declined to speculate how or why the lid was lost but noted the tank is a place where air can go and perhaps provide more downforce.
“We’ll take a look, and if there are any actions that will be taken, we’ll make that announcement as we normally do next week,” Poston said.
Bob Osborne, Edwards’ crew chief, said that he wouldn’t comment until after the sanctioning body examined the car.
At the top, though, has been Edwards. He’s won two consecutive races and heads to yet another intermediate track - the 1.5-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway - on a hot streak. He currently holds a 21-point lead over Kyle Busch in the standings, though his team could be penalized for an unattached oil tank cover discovered in postrace inspection Sunday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
While the two have made it look easy getting to the front, it was anything but in Sunday’s race. First Edwards got a speeding penalty on pit road and had to start at the tail end of the longest line. Then a tire rolled out of the stall, and NASCAR was going to penalize the team again until it became clear it wasn’t the team’s fault that it got away. The team also underwent a mid-race crew change in its effort to get a more experienced crew member in the lineup late in the race.
Osborne stayed calm while arguing the call, knowing that his team could win the race if they didn’t have to forfeit the positions.
“The crew member that was supposed to catch it right away ran up to the box and said what happened, so I jumped down and spoke with the official about it,” Osborne said. “In that situation, when you think you didn’t actually break a rule, you have to try to keep a level head, so I did my best to do that. I wanted to go ballistic, for sure, and yell and scream and take a punch and do whatever I had to do to get my way, but I kept a level head the best I could, and the officials were very good in the situation also.”
NASCAR doesn’t want to take a win away after the race ends. In the eyes of NASCAR officials, the fans deserve to know who won the race. A team could deliberately violate the rules to win a race, knowing NASCAR wouldn’t take the win away from it. What NASCAR hopes to do is make the penalty severe enough that breaking the rules wasn’t worth it even if the driver still goes down as the winner.
NASCAR also tries to show consistency in how these penalties are applied, five Nationwide teams were penalized for a similar violation two weeks ago at Daytona.The oil tank cover was completely off of the 99 Fusion when inspected after Edwards victory. The car was impounded and taken to NASCAR’s Research & Development Center in Concord, N.C.
The rule states you have to have it and it must be secured. Maybe there’s a legitimate reason why the lid came off. NASCAR took 25 points away from each team and suspended each crew chief for six weeks, along with fining the crew chiefs $15,000.
A 25-point penalty for Edwards would drop him from first to second in the Sprint Cup standings. Losing crew chief Bob Osborne for six weeks also could hurt a team that’s on a roll with back-to-back victories. A decision could come Tuesday, but it might be later this week.
