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June 26, 2007
Penalties Announced for #24 and #48 Teams
Although Nascar threatened to escalate the penalties for COT violations, in the end they gave the same penalties to the #24 and #48 teams as they did to the #8 team for COT rules infractions. Drivers Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson lose 100 driver points; the crew chiefs, Steve Letarte and Chad Knaus are suspended for six races until August 15 and have been fined $100,000; and car owners Rick Hendrick and Jeff Gordon lose 100 owner points. While the penalties seem severe, are they really? Jeff has such a big lead in the Championship Standings that he still maintains a healthy lead of 171 points over Denny Hamlin despite the loss of points. For Jimmie losing 100 points is costly because he drops three spots in the standings, but he's still solidly in the Chase. Likewise, losing owner's points isn't much of an issue for either of these teams since they still remain in the top 35 in owner's points. The money is meaningless, likely even to these crew chiefs, and that's even if they'll be paying the fines with their own money.
Losing their crew chiefs for six races is probably what will hurt these teams the most, but both teams are extremely strong and have shown the ability to overcome obstacles, particularly the #48 team who has lost Chad before to suspension. In addition, Hendrick Motorsports has so much depth that they probably have more than a few candidates who are well-prepared to step up and take over and lead these teams almost as well as Chad and Steve can. But the reality is that even though Chad and Steve will be suspended, and won't be able to be in the garage or on the pit box, they'll be able to work with their teams at the shop, and communicate with their teams as much as they want by IM, email, cell phone, etc... something that Nascar can't prevent them from doing, both because there's no way to monitor computers and cell phones 24/7, but also because Nascar has said previously they don't want to get into doing, probably because of the privacy issues it raises.
What gets me is that Chad Knaus is a repeat offender and has been suspended before for cheating. So why isn't the penalty given to him more severe than the one given to Steve Letarte? That doesn't seem quite right that a crew chief with no history (that I can recall) of breaking the rules gets the same penalty as one with a long list of rules violations, some of them quite serious. It begs the question as to whether Nascar, for all their tough talk about having zero tolerance for rules violations, particularly as they relate to the COT, is really as serious about it as they say they are.
Some fans don't think they're very serious at all. After all, Jeff and Jimmie were allowed to race at Infineon and they weren't parked for any upcoming races, and some feel that the only way to prevent cheating is if teams are afraid that they won't be allowed to race. But I don't think it's very likely that Nascar will ever park a driver if their team is found to be in violation of the rules because that would punish the sponsor and fans for the misdeeds of the team. The last thing that Nascar wants to do is anger sponsors, particularly big-time sponsors like Lowe's and Dupont who probably spent $15-20 million each on their sponsorships, plus the additional money they invest in merchandising, marketing, promotions and advertising. Nor does Nascar want to disappoint large fanbases like those that Jeff and Jimmie have by not allowing them to race - they need those fans to buy tickets, merchandise and watch the broadcasts.
The question is how many more teams will be willing to risk a possible loss of points and the suspension of their crew chiefs to try and see what they might be able to get away with in relation to the COT?
Posted by silverdsl at June 26, 2007 04:11 PM