Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Someone will always try!

NASCAR has made it clear, right from the introduction of the new Sprint Cup car, that aerodynamic variations outside the limits set by the rules will not be tolerated. Saturday, however, we have learned that someone will always try, when NASCAR confiscated both cars that Haas CNC had entered in the Coca-Cola 600.

Today, we learned that NASCAR will be consistant, in this case, at least, when they imposed a total of $400,000 in fines on the Haas Teams. That's 100,000 each for each car owner, and each crew chief. Each team and driver was also penalized 150 points.

Still, it is a tradition in racing to try to get around the rules, in any way possible, to make the car faster. For the Haas teams, it was in changing the way the rear spoiler was mounted. Is it worth the fines? If it hadn't been discovered it would have been.

I salute the determination that these crew chiefs have to continue to try to innovate. That is part of NASCAR

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's an absolutely huge fine ... but, NASCAR can't say that they didn't warn these guys. How much more money do they need to collect before the teams finallys start to listen?

Cheyenne said...

And now they are out of that money with nothing to show for it. Tony better rescue Haas/CNC before they go into the dumper. Or is that just heresay?

Anonymous said...

well i think the same I agree with tim! they have already collected huge funds and still they are looking for it

Snafam said...

The crew chiefs and car chiefs will have to heal from their public spanking at home, for the next six weeks.

This certainly seems to be a case of 'being taken out to the woodshed.'

Anonymous said...

I am sure they got the memo, but did they read the memo? I guess not. NASCAR told these boys don't mess with the COT or else. Well..we know what the else is.

Mike said...

The points is the biggest pain for Haas. Suddenly the #66 car is only five points shy of the top 35 ledge. The #70 is already toast and lacks sponsorship. This is a potentially fatal hit to Haas-CNC.

RevJim said...

They said the loss of the crew chief and the car chief (I forgot to mention that part) is going to hurt CNC the most. They don't have the depth that the bigger teams have, so they can't replace those guys.
Tony Stewart acknowledged that Haas CNC offered part ownership, but he also said he had a lot of other offers that were interesting. I don't think, as ESPN has reported (and they are the only ones to report it, all the other news services have backed away from the story) that he has considered the deal. He said that he found the offer interesting, and that was about it.
Does anyone except for Tom Bowles or Jenna Fryer actually believe he would quit a winning team to own a losing team with 0 resources?

RevJim said...

I meant to add, if all the fine money goes to charity, does Haas or NASCAR get to take it as a tax decuction?

Anonymous said...

I think that this is going to pretty much eliminate any interest Stewart may have had in taking up an ownership role with Haas CNC. It's one thing to join a struggling organization, but as someone earlier mentioned, this could very well be a fatal blow to the team. It's basically like a startup team at this point.