Daytona Beach, Fla. – NASCAR vowed last summer to crack down on cheaters, pledging to toughen penalties in a sport in which bending the rules is as common as banging bumpers.
Officials made good on that promise Tuesday.
NASCAR suspended the crew chiefs for Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Scott Riggs and Elliott Sadler and docked all four drivers points before Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500 – its strongest statement to date on cheating.
All four cars failed qualifying inspection, and a fifth, Michael Waltrip’s start-up Toyota Camry, faces additional penalties that could be more severe.
“It’s obvious that we’ve ramped up our penalties and we’re going to get people’s attention,” competition director Robin Pemberton said. “We’re going to grab this one by the horns.”
Robbie Reiser, crew chief for Kenseth, and Kenny Francis, crew chief for Kahne, were suspended four races. Rodney Childers, crew chief for Riggs, and Josh Brown, crew chief for Sadler, were suspended two races.
Kahne, Riggs and Sadler are teammates at Evernham Motorsports.
Kenseth, the 2003 series champion and runner-up last season, drives for Roush Racing.
All four crew chiefs can appeal, a process that could allow them to work the Great American Race. If they do and the committee cannot schedule a hearing before Sunday’s race, they would be allowed to participate.
But Roush Racing already has a replacement for Reiser, and said the 500 will be the first race he has missed since the team’s inception in 1999 – a stretch of 255 races.
Reiser and Francis may not appeal because delaying the suspension could cause them to miss the debut of the Car of Tomorrow at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in March.
In toughening its penalties, NASCAR made the unprecedented move of taking points away before the season has even started. Kahne and Kenseth were docked 50 points apiece, while Riggs and Sadler lost 25 each.
Reiser and Francis also were fined $50,000 each, while Childers and Brown were fined $25,000 each.
All four drivers will start the season with negative points – a move that most likely infuriated the teams, but sent a strong message that NASCAR will no longer tolerate rule-breakers.
NASCAR is still investigating Waltrip, who had a car part seized and shipped to North Carolina for further analysis.
It’s the second straight season that NASCAR’s biggest event has been marred by cheating scandals. Last year, Jimmie Johnson’s crew chief was sent home for four races when he was caught cheating in qualifying. Johnson won the race without Chad Knaus, who rejoined the team in March and helped Johnson win the Nextel Cup title.
NASCAR did not strip points from Johnson because the sanctioning body had been reluctant to force a team to start the season in the red. But after three cars failed inspection during Sunday’s qualifying session, NASCAR decided it had to up the ante to deter teams from continuously pushing the envelope.
Kenseth and Kahne had their qualifying times thrown out after inspectors discovered illegal holes in the wheel wells, which could have improved aerodynamics.
Evernham maintained the holes had been covered with duct tape that apparently fell off before the Dodge was inspected. But Pemberton said NASCAR believed the tape had been cut.
Riggs’ and Sadler’s cars both had modifications that allowed air to leak out of the trunk area. It was discovered before qualifying and had not been announced by NASCAR before Tuesday.
Waltrip, meanwhile, had a suspicious substance in the intake manifold of his Camry. Inspectors plan to examine the car today, and NASCAR has not decided if it will be returned to Waltrip in time for Thursday’s qualifying races.
IndyCar: Michael Andretti, who came out of two-year retirement last year to race in the Indianapolis 500, said he wants to take a shot at it again in May.
Michael nearly won it in his 15th try, but wound up third, watching from the best seat in the house as Sam Hornish Jr. passed his son, Marco, on the final straightway to leave the Andrettis second and third.
“I’m obviously very excited to know that I’m going to have another chance to win the Indianapolis 500,” Michael said.
Except for Mario’s win in 1969, the family – including Michael’s younger brother Jeff and their cousin John – has been unable to reach Victory Circle at the Brickyard.
