All I can say is the punishment did not fit the crime.  If Long had just loaded up and went home after the engine blew, there would be no story.  The man purchased a piece of eq. that was certified to meet spec. from a well known builder.

Will Long file a suit against Elliot for the out of spec motor that was certified to meet NASCAR spec.?

Will NASCAR pull every motor from Pocono and test it for size?

The rule book states——- period it doesnt give from here to there increments of measurements it is NO bigger then——-
Long was 1oo % wrong .
Although i have to give you that the fine [not anything else] is high not being able to race in NASCAR Long or anyone else should take no exception to that he never races anyways so who cares. I personally think NASCAR should just bar him from being a owner or driver if they want to work for someone else Well you know what WHO CARES/ Paul Denton

What I want to know is: How in the blue hell does Carl Long make a living in NASCAR?  He is the epitome of the term “field-filler”, and in looking up his stats over the course of his career he’s made 23 starts and averages a worse finishing position than he started with.  I thought Sprint Cup was the premier series for NASCAR.  What’s a guy like this doing in it?  Is it messed up that he can’t make a living driving cars because of NASCAR’s decision?  Yeah I guess.  But, considering he had yet to qualify for any races this season, and I can’t find any stats on him post-2006, how much of a living was he making anyway?  And how can he honestly call himself a “race car driver” in Sprint Cup when he can’t even qualify to race?

The NASCAR decision effects more than just his driving profession.  Carl works for Front Row Racing,  they filed the #34 and #37 cars in the Cup Series.  The ruling does not allow Long to work on the Sprint Cup cars.  (Long’s engine was .17 Cubic Inches out of spec, that’s .04% to large.)
Think of it this way…You get caught taking some pens from your office, exactly .17 inches of a pen to be exact.  Your office has a written policy against theft of office supplies.  You are penalized by being suspended for 12 weeks.  And by the way, you cannot do your present job for the company you work for, or any company that performs the same type of work.  Now tell me the penalty was fair.
At the very least, the commission should have greatly reduced the 12-race suspension, and the fine.

Well, if I know ahead of time (like Carl Long knew) that breaking company policy (stealing office supplies / using an oversize engine) is going to lead to suspension no matter how minute the infraction might be then yeah, the penalty is fair.  And by the way, “suspension” is just that, a suspension from doing your job.  Which means that you can’t work for your company for the specified time period.

I’m not quite sure what point you’re trying to make by saying “you cannot work… for any company that performs the same type of work”. Well, actually, Carl Long CAN go work somewhere else.  NASCAR hasn’t told him he cannot race cars.  If he wants to, he can go race for Formula 1 or the IRL.  In fact, if he wanted to, he could race in the Nationwide Series or the Truck Series.  NASCAR is telling him that he can’t race in the Sprint Cup Series until he serves his suspension.

If you want to look at it in terms of your “stealing office supplies” scenario, then say you work for the ABC Accounting Corp. You get caught stealing office supplies and get hit with a 12-week suspension.  Well, if you want, you can go work for the XYZ Accounting Corp. if they’re willing to take you for the 12 weeks that you’re suspended from ABC.  But you can’t work for ABC Accounting or any other department there until you serve your suspension.

The analogue for Carl Long is that he can go drive anywhere he wants outside of NASCAR.  But what he can’t do is say, well I’m not going to drive for Front Row, but I think I’ll go drive for Hall of Fame, or Michael Waltrip, for those 12 weeks.

And as far as the commission greatly reducing the fine and suspension…. why?  They’re under no obligation to do so.  A cop ticketing a car parked in front of a hydrant is going to ticket it for the same amount regardless of whether it’s a Maybach or a Hyundai.  A judge can decide whether he wants to reduce the fine, but he is under no obligation to do so.  There’s nothing the judge has to do “at the very least” for the Hyundai owner just because he has a problem paying the fine but the Maybach owner doesn’t.  If anything, you’re showing the Hyundai owner preferential treatment because in effect you’re saying, well, they both broke the law, and they both knew what the penalty would be, but because he Hyundai owner might have a problem paying the fine, then “at the very least” we should lower the fine to make it easier on him.

Carl Long knew that (1) the penalty for an oversize engine is the harshest one that NASCAR dishes out, and (2) regardless of who screwed up where, the driver and team are responsible for anything that goes into their car.

This is why there are absolutes for these types of infractions.  Where do you draw the line?  .20 of an inch?  .25 of an inch?

Long is suspended from Sprint Cup competition.  He cannot work for any team that participates in the Sprint Cup.  He cannot drive for any Sprint Cup Team.  He cannot own or be listed as an owner of any Sprint Cup Team.  The penalty has removed him from competition, and his job, that’s what I have a problem with.

You are correct that he can work for a team that does not compete in the Sprint Cup Series.

But if you DON’T suspend him and remove him from competition, then what’s the point of the suspension?  You would have joke “suspensions” that would provide neither punishment nor deterence for violations.  A suspension by definition would necessarily entail a removal from competition for a specified period of time.  What would be the point of “suspending” him if he could just pick up and go work or drive for someone else?

I understand Jerry’s point that the infraction warranted a suspension, but that he feels the suspension is too harsh.  Fine. I’m not quite sure I’m grasping your point correctly, but are you saying that you have a problem with Long getting suspended PERIOD?

I have a problem with a man being denied his livelihood for such a small infraction.  If the motor had been used to qualify, or in the race, then the penalty should be what was handed down. I would agree with the suspension and penalty.

In my opinion, since the motor was never used for competition, only used during practice, and only used during practice for a non-points event, NASCAR should not have penalize Long to the extent that they did.  I agree, there should have been a penalty, maybe a 3-4 week suspension, driver and owner points, and a $50,000.00 fine.  Hell, Gordon got caught with a car out of spec, that ran in a real race, finished third, and only got a small fine.