FanHouse NascarPenalties

NASCAR dusted off the ol' penalty paddle Wednesday, and did so in historic form.

Carl Long, a part-time driver that has likely sold fewer team T-shirts in his career than Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s car number old or new, was slapped with a $200,000 fine after NASCAR found his engine to be too big during last weekend's All-Star festivities.

The dollar figure was the largest ever docked by the sanctioning body, and very easily could end Long's racing career.

NASCAR's biggest cheating scandal of the 2008 season may finally be coming to a close for the guilty parties.

Joe Gibbs Racing's Nationwide Series crew members Dave Rogers, Jason Ratcliff and five others from the team all look to resume at-track duties at the season's second race in Los Angeles after the team applied for reinstatement last week.

The 7 team members were suspended by NASCAR indefinitely in August -- among a plethora of other fines and penalties -- after the sanctioning body discovered a plot to manipulate post-race engine data in favor of the Toyota teams following the Nationwide Series event at Michigan International Speedway.

Don't you just love it when a headline has a humorous double entendre? I do.

In all seriousness, however, Kyle Busch's No. 18 really did have its rear end housing (which helps to hold the transmission & other drive components in place) taken by NASCAR following Sunday's race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, according to David Poole of The Charlotte Observer.

"We were out to lunch there a long ways and made the most of a solid run. Happy with that I guess - a top five," Busch said.

After the race, NASCAR confiscated the rear end housing from Busch's No. 18 Toyota with plans to double check measurements at the research and development center in Concord, N.C.

Busch, who won the season's first race at AMS to take the first of many Toyota victories in 2008, left the track with just his second Top-5 finish (he turned in a 5th-place run) in the 2008 edition of the Chase for the Sprint Cup after coming in as the overriding favorite.

Brian Vickers and Red Bull Racing weren't expecting to be the big news of the week -- especially after ex-Formula 1 driver Scott Speed made his Sprint Cup debut at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday.

Instead, the team was given all but a heavy dose of corporal punishment Wednesday afternoon thanks to NASCAR finding that the sheet metal on Vickers' No. 83 was too thin for NASCAR's specifications.

The lack of depth left Vickers with 150 less points (drops from 15th to 17th in the driver point standings) and without a car cheif (Craig Smokstad) or crew chief (Kevin Hamlin) for an unknown amount of time after both were suspended indefinitely by NASCAR.

Ouch.

However, the team took complete responsibility for the violation in a subsequent press release saying they wouldn't appeal the ruling and that they realize it's a "privilege" to compete in NASCAR. Ominous words for the person mainly behind this penalty were also included in the release as it said "necessary steps will be taken to rectify the situation and ensure it won't happen again".

All that being said, what in the world does it mean and why does it help for a team to have thin sheet metal?

NASCAR had to rain on its own parade, but thankfully they didn't induce a downpour.

The sanctioning body placed Sprint Cup point leader Kyle Busch and last Saturday night's winner Carl Edwards on probation Wednesday morning for their post-race antics following the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway:

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Aug. 27, 2008) – NASCAR announced today that it has placed Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards on probation for the next six races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, as a result of their on-track incident last Saturday at the conclusion of the race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Busch, driver of the No. 18 car and Edwards, driver of the No. 99 car, both violated Section 12-4-A (actions detrimental to stock car racing; hitting another competitor's car after the race had concluded) of the 2008 NASCAR rule book.

The probation takes effect beginning with this weekend's event at Auto Club Speedway.

Prior to 2008, the typical penalty for such post-race encounters included a monetary fine and seemed much steeper, but this penalty falls more in line with NASCAR's pledge from the beginning of the season to let the rough side drag a little more in the sport.

And can you blame them? The biggest news from Bristol was Busch & Edwards, not anything else.

I guess you could say Saturday night's LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway for J.J. Yeley (yay yay yay-lee!) was pretty normal.

The No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing team started officially in 40th and finished 24th, but the setbacks along the way incurred from NASCAR make that finish seem a little more impressive.

You see, J.J. Yeley is a fan of cold water. He likes to drink it, especially when sitting inside a hot race car for 400 miles. He's not so much a fan of warm water, though, like the water inside his race car after sitting through inspection in the July sun in the midwest. And so, his team replaced his warm water bag with a cold water bag -- like they've done for nearly every race this season -- just prior to the race.

NASCAR wasn't a fan of the move, though. Because Yeley's car had already gone through inspection and because there wasn't an official present to see the H2O transaction, they got suspicious. Really suspicious.

They took the No. 96 off of pit road, put it back through inspection, and in doing so, didn't really find anything different. It made him late joining the field, and as soon as the green flag dropped, NASCAR called the No. 96 in for a pass through penalty for "Disobeying a NASCAR Request". The move dropped him behind the field and one lap down.

That's a steep penalty for a dude that just simply wants some high quality H2O in his ride -- or at least some water that isn't going to boil his insides.

They probably knew it was coming, but probably not to this extent.

Haas-CNC Racing, which fields NASCAR Sprint Cup cars No. 66 and No. 77, had more than just a book thrown at them Wednesday as NASCAR levied the penalties for rear-wing mount infractions stemming from last weekend's race at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

The penalties, for both teams, included:

• 150 Driver points from Johnny Sauter and Scott Riggs
• 150 Owner points from the No. 66 and No. 70
• Six week suspensions from Sprint Cup Series racing for both crew chiefs and car chiefs
• $100,000 fine for crew chiefs "Bootie" Barker and Dave Skog, each
  
• Both race cars will not be returned after NASCAR confiscated them Friday at LMS

I think you can call that getting the entire library thrown at you.

In all, having rear-wing brackets that weren't correct -- Barker maintains he's used them all season -- just cost the team roughly a three-quarters of a million dollars.

I understand NASCAR's desire to clean up the sport and prevent teams from skirting the rules, but costing a team $750,000 seems a little overwhelming, considering the stats the Haas-CNC teams have put together in 2008.

Carl Edwards' No. 99 Roush Fenway Ford may have won the UAW-Dodge 400 last Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but NASCAR rained down heavily with penalties on Wednesday.

All of the fines and penalties come directly from Edwards' No. 99 failing post-race inspection due to a oil tank cover not in its correct position.

Edwards' Penalties Include:

• 100 driver points
• 100 owner points
• 10-point Chase bonus for winning a race
• Six week suspension for crew chief Bob Osbourne
  
• $100,000 fine for Osbourne
• Probation until Dec. 31 for Osbourne

The penalties given are quite similar to those the Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, and Jeff Gordon faced for Car of Tomorrow violations in 2007.

The penalty drops Edwards from first in the point standings to seventh, taking him out of first points lead in his Sprint Cup career.

Check out all of the NASCAR Fanhouse Daytona Speedweeks Coverage.

I literally laughed in the middle of hotel lobby when I read today the penalties exacted on Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart for their antics last Friday night during Budweiser Shootout practice.

And yes, the girl behind the Starbucks counter gave me a weird look.

Probation was the name of the game for the two former champions who got into an arguing match with two 3,500lb race cars Friday night. Who cares if the actions have cost drivers points and fines in the past, for NASCAR is set about making NASCAR more user-friendly to people who like controversy.

Step one in that process is apparently slapping the weakest penalty known to man on the two drivers who consistently find themselves on the wrong side of NASCAR's ire.

Yep, Stewart and Busch earned a six-race probation for their antics. Nope, not a suspension. Not a fine. No community service. And nope, no points deductions either.

Probation.

We're talking about probation, man!

It wasn't a bright and shiny day after all for Hendrick Motorsports Saturday at Kansas.

Kyle Busch won Saturday's Busch race at Kansas Speedway over Matt Kenseth by about a car length in his No. 5 Chevrolet. While the victory was nice, it could turn out to haunt Busch for the rest of 2007 season in both the Busch and Nextel Cup series.

Busch's car failed post-race inspection in a major sort of way Saturday evening. And by major sort of way, I mean like Michael Waltrip-type way, not the Carl Edwards-type way.

The intake manifold on the No. 5's engine -- a piece long thought as one of the steepest of infractions when out of bounds -- was deemed illegal in the eyes of NASCAR. The sanctioning body has since taken the part into their possession.

This certainly isn't good news for anyone involved with Busch's Busch or Nextel Cup series efforts. Without a doubt, the penalty will be steep (as Busch Series penalties go) for Busch and Co. The significant "and Co." part of that equation includes the man who crew chiefs for Busch in both divisions, Alan Gustafson.