Earnhardt, Jr’s Nationwide car impounded for violation, suspension likely for crew chief
Quote selected text Published February 15th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway hasn’t been perfect for Dale Earnhardt Jr. after all.
The No. 5 car Earnhardt will drive in Saturday’s Nationwide Series opener was impounded by NASCAR on Thursday night after officials discovered the team altered the spoiler to create an aerodynamic advantage following inspection.
The car was returned on Friday morning minus the trunk lid and spoiler, repaired and sent back through inspection. It will be allowed to run in the race.
Joe Balash, the Nationwide Series director, said further sanctions against the team and crew chief Chad Walter will be issued on Tuesday. NASCAR officials considered sending Walter home because the offense was considered blatant, but opted to hold off on what could result in a suspension.
Rick Hendrick is listed as the car owner, but the car is co-owned by Hendrick and Earnhardt and run by JR Motorsports in Mooresville, N.C.
Tony Eury Sr., the competition director at JR Motorsports, said Earnhardt and Hendrick weren’t “too happy” with what happened. He said the company could take action against Walter on top of what NASCAR does.
“That’s not something either of them approve of,” Eury Sr. said. “Neither side [NASCAR or Earnhardt] is happy about it.”
- JR Motorsports to appeal suspension of crew chief
- Penalties reduced for two Nationwide crew chiefs
- Aaron Fike placed on indefinite suspension by NASCAR
- NASCAR reduces Nationwide Series crew chief’s suspension
- Edwards gets crew chief Osborne back from suspension
OK, so lets hear it HMS conspiracy theorists!
Or is this Teresas fault too?
Suspend the team and the driver from all NASCAR competition for the 2008 season, then maybe that’ll show these guys (all NASCAR drivers/crew) that you can’t cheat.
Plus for such an outstanding driver and amazing team (sarcasm) to have to cheat in the MINOR LEAGUES is just pathetic on the part of all involved with that organization.
GROW UP!!! ya can’t suspend a driver for the entire friggin’ season!!!!!
Penalize them all the same!!!!!!
Maybe Teresa didn’t have anything to do with this but the beotch has screwed things up for DEI in the past and the future. I had she bombs and then Jr. can get back in to the co. he belongs with in the first place!!!!!
Dale Sr.’s spinning in his grave for sure because of her greedy a__!!!!!!!
Tash wrote:
Umm… Yeah you can, and NASCAR has done it before, all they need to do is revoke that drivers competition license.
There is no reason for Earnhardt to want to cheat in the Busch… (whatever) series.
Sounds to me like another HMS crew chief who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else and acting independently. Not everyone can be Chad Knaus (and get away with it).
Plus this Chad Walter guy has a mechanical engineering degree from Cornell. I’m sure he thought he could he could ensure himself a win to get bumped up the ranks. Who wants to be stuck in the minor leagues with credentials like that?
Fisha695 wrote:
In the history of NASCAR, crew chiefs have always pushed the boundaries and I ALL CREW CHIEFS!
Donny wrote:
Oh come on Donny, be reasonable! We all know Teresa only sabotages motors, not deck lids and spoilers!
Chad may have a degree from Cornell, but he should’ve spent a little time going through the Junior Johnson book on cheating! If he’d done that, he wouldn’t have gotten caught. 100 points for being creative…6 race suspension for getting caught!
for all of you saying SUSPEND THE DRIVER….the driver has nothing to do with it…it was a crew chief deal and they stated that….can you not read????? heres a QUOTE from the above incase you missed it….
“He said the company could take action against Walter on top of what NASCAR does.”
why would junior cheat at Daytona of all places??? hes the best there is racing down there and hes proving that right now in the cup series…better equipment = better driver…or atleast a driver that has talent…JR isnt scott riggs…better equipment will make him a better driver….
and JR MS is completely separate operation from HMS…everyone whines and cries about stuff unless it involves their driver…so shut up about it…
im a firm beleive in what comes around goes around…and if they were cheating, penalize them..but you cant SUSPEND THEM FOR THE WHOLE SEASON….your obviously STUPID…Nascar is not about to loose the sponsorship money and all that goes into these races by getting rid of a driver…shut up and deal with it…not my fault your a Kurt Busch fan..your just upset that Tony Stewart kicked his arse in the nascar hauler…cry babies
Well, this is one reason I didn’t want Jr. going over to Hendrick. I don’t know why, but it seems there is no shortage of cheaters over at Hendrick. I hate it for Rick, he is a good guy, and Jr., he’s a good driver. Neither one of them needs this kind of publicity. They need to fire his ass as well as all the other people who still work there who have been caught cheating in the past. On the other hand, sometimes, the things that these guys are doing to “cheat” aren’t exactly done intentionally. So it’s a hard call to make. But, cheating is cheating, and they need to monitor it if they (NASCAR) are going to keep it a strict no cheating sport.
Darrell wrote:
The driver in this case is 50% owner of the team, so yes the driver has lots to do with it as the owner is responsible for the actions of all the employees of the team.
Ok, this is NOT jr’s fault. in fact, as was stated in the article, he and hendricks are
considering company discipline on the crew chief. Not every violation in NASCAR is the driver’s
fault.
u cant suspend dale earnhardt jr (well u can) but he is the most popular driver out there and if they did that everyone will be mad
its not his fault for what his crew chief did, he just drives the car and tells them whats wrog with it if it dont feel right and then the crew fixes it but i doubt he told them to do what they did
DJ wrote:
As per listed on the NASCAR entry blank Jr is 50% owner of that team, which means he is 50% responsible for what his crew chief did, which means NASCAR can take any action they want on him for this. If he was just listed as the driver they couldn’t touch him, however Rick convinced Jr to become 50% owner of the 5 team, so now that means that whatever Rick or one of his guys (actually the 5 car is fully prepared by JRM guys at the JRM shop) get in trouble for Jr has to pay for it.
Fisha695 wrote:
Well fisha we all know that you hate jr, and do not expect you to have any other opinion.
How dumb are you to mess with a spoiler at a restrictor plate track
Even I, a dumb die-hard open wheel fan, knows how rigerous NASCAR is
on that particular area of the car
Sam wrote:
I don’t hate him, I just don’t like him, but none-the-less what I have stated is true, he is listed as 50% owner of that team, that car is prepared out of his shop by his guys, therefore he as the owner is responsible for it, and for these infractions.
Nash wrote:
I missed that as well.Thank You for pointing it out to me.
A car owned by Hendrick voilating rules?? That has to be a first
NOT!! BWAHAHAHAHAH!!!! I love this.
Jim B wrote:
I fixed it for ya
must be jeff gordon’s fault, right?
Fisha695,
pure definition of JR NATION HATER…i couldn’t care any less about your opinion..im sure i feel the same way about your driver…fact of the matter is..we know JR is 50% owner…but he is not 100% driver of that team..you can not suspend the entire team..casey mears will be driving that team as well..is that fair to penalize him..i think not…
we get your point…you dont have to repeat this 50,000 times…i know its hard to be a kurt busch fan these days..but don’t take it out on everyone in JR nation…
EVERY TEAM IN NASCAR PUSHES THE ENVELOPE……find one that doesn’t..and they are the teams that go home every weekend…so deal with it..others get caught…and some get away with it..AKA..Chad Knaus…you want to talk about cheating? theres your prime example…yea hes a hendrick employee..but so what..Todd Berrier from the 29 team..is JUST AS BAD…do they get penalized yea…you act like everyone is supposed to be perfect and they wont be…cry about it some more..when JR is in victory lane in both the Nationwide and Daytona 500…you can cry and whine all you want..but no one cares….get over it
All I’m saying is if you penalize them sharply you will have less offenders. It was a practice taken up at my local track the other year, and as of last year, we had no cars that raced there (not counting cars that came as part of the tour races) that were illegal, because the car owners/builders have seen what happens when you cheat.
As far as my favorite driver… Don’t really have one. I’ve been kinda pulling for Truex a bit, but there is something about seeing a driver you met and knew when he was still a Saturday night driver make it to the big leagues.
Also something I forgot to add, there is a difference between pushing the envelope and altering the car to be illegal after it already passed inspection.
Fisha, if NASCAR was gonna do this, they should have started with Jimmie Johnson years ago. Or, maybe all drivers at one time or another since NASCAR originated. Is there any way that you can have an unbiast opinion of JR?? After all these months, its all too obvious listening to youre ranting and raving about Jr this and JR that, that you cant have an unbiast opinion about someone YOU dont like.
Fish I wonder if you would feel the sam way if your Boy Chad gets caught Cheating Again? What is it in Cali 3 strikes and your out? Chad has 2!
Fire wrote:
My boy Chad…? If you are talking about Knaus I’m not a fan of him or his driver, if you are talking about the guy that cheated for Jr… well I’m not a fan of him or his driver either.
Christina wrote:
I don’t see what your point is. If you do not like something you will not have an unbiased opinion on it. Here I’ll give you an example, Terrorists… I’m sure we can all agree that we don’t like Terrorists, and I am sure that we all have biased opinions on what should happen to Terrorists. But by going by what you are saying even though we do not like Terrorists, we should speak of them like people we do like. See where your theory is wrong?
well this is dale were talkin about. He has load of fans that won’t agree with him being a cheater. This is kinda like the presidential elections if you ask me. I live in California and most of the people around here are voting for Hillary Clinton. The reason for this is, well nvm, there is no reason, they’re just retarded. They’re posessed by her commercials and B.S. interviews. In relation to dale, after his history and family and everything else fans know about him, people won’t come clean and give their honest opionion. Honestly, i don’t think he cheated. But its not gonna look good that the season hasn’t even started yet and he’s caught with a illegal infraction right as he joins an illegaly infractioning race team. But people will still support dale even though he’s on a cheating race team, and people will still vote for hillary, even though the liberals look as ugly as muddy fence and have the heart, mind, and potential of a bag of rocks.
Regardless of how stiffly you penalize the organization or owner there will always be rogues operating on their own ideas within that organization. This appears to be a prime example. Not that Hendrick hasn’t had it’s share of infractions, but modifying a car for Junior to win a second tier race at Daytona? That is beyond laughable. There’s one person with a motive here and its no one but an engineer or crew member. Perhaps a crew chief who is an engineer.
Bending and breaking the rules is a part of every form of motorsport in the world. Some do it directly for race day and the rest do it more indirectly. If we lived in a perfect world this wouldn’t happen, but we don’t.
Fisha695 wrote:
Fisha i think you need to grow up your acting like a 6 year old and btw nascar will not get rid of their golden goose. If they were going to do such a thing they would have started with Mikey Waltrip so drop it already.
You do realize that the more cheating becomes the norm when they do not want it to be the more they will come down on it. Years ago you could do all but kill somebody in a fight and get away with it, now if you do that NASCAR will fine you and/or put you on probation.
And how am I acting like a 6 year old? Because I have my thoughts and opinions and I stick to them and do not follow the crowd….? Heck at least I don’t flip-flop to go with the popular thought like 99% of the people that run this country.
When did this become about the people who run our country??? Wow, you got off kilter a bit. Ok mister “terrorist” comparison. Its like you looking at an Israeli or Pakistani looking person and saying he is a terrorist. You dont know that. How can you say suspend or kick out the driver. 9 times out of 10, the drivers dont even work on the cars. Like i said, you have made it obvious that you dont like JR, so i expect nothing more from you than negative comments about him. Guess what, I like Tony, but i think he should have been suspended after punching Kurt. Just to make an example of him.
This just sucks! I agree with Darrell and Axel on their views of the matter.
I am peeved that Jr is getting a raw deal on it and a bad name, thanks to some yahoo who thought he was Chad Knaus. This really p!sses me off that people are going to look at Jr like HE had something to do with it.
Jr doesn’t need to cheat! We’ll leave that up to Johnson, Gordon and whatever other idiots try it. But, Jr is an upright guy. And, for all things, the friggen nationwide?? wtf! That’s just stupid. I hope they ditch that Walter and nail him hard with penalties, but leave the DRIVER out of it. He didn’t tweak on the car.
Christina wrote:
You are missing the original point of why I said suspend the Driver in this case. JR THE DRIVER is also THE OWNER of this team. If I’d have said Suspend the owner of the team in this case it’d mean the same thing as suspend the Driver, BECAUSE THEY ARE ONE IN THE SAME! I don’t see how you people can refuse to see that!!!! The Team owner is responsible for the actions of their employees no matter if they knew about it or not, and Jr is the Team owner therefore by default he is responsible for his employees.
And yes Tony should’ve been suspended for a race, and Kurt should be banned from NASCAR for using his car as a weapon for the second time in less the a year (probably less then 6 months)
And No I am not racist and I do not judge people by their skin color or their nationality, if you do hey that is your business.
fisha….petition nascar to change the rules or something and get over it. Anyone who thinks that EVERY TEAM is not cheating at least a little is naive !!! This is the real world and they all want an advantage, period. Cheating has always been a part of RACING!!! Not just nascar, just look at f1 as an example. So you are not going to change the opinion of jrs fans and you never will.
Who do you like?
Donny wrote:
LMAO!
love your sarcasm…
Ya - I’ll bet all the Junior Nation drones probably think the reason why Hendrick just had to change-out all 4 of their cup car engines + all of the engines other teams purchased from them this week (7 or 8 total ??) was because Teresa snuck into the Hendrick garage and sabataged the motors…. right???
~ tongue in cheek ~
***rolling my eyes***
LMAO…
Once again Fisha, read it, “Rick Hendrick is listed as the car owner, but the car is co-owned by Hendrick and Earnhardt “, so do you still stick to youre “the owner is responsible for the actions of all the employees of the team.” Think they should suspend Hendrick too??? Should they boot him too? All i cau say, is thank god youre one sided theory isnt running this country!!
Lol jr nation yall make me laugh do hard, and yes to eliminate any confusion I am a hater. Man as soon as JR moves to Hendricks he gets caught cheating, what a surprise. This makes me wonder about all his success at speed week. Bottom line is this Hendricks and JR both owns the car, Jr drives the car so they are responsible for what their EMPLOYEE does. And the fact that they are saying that they are going to punish this crew chief, is just them trying to save face here. Jr knew what they were doing, and I’m sure he was assured that they wouldn’t get caught. BUT THEY DID. Now I don’t say suspend them for the whole season, that’s a bit harsh, but NASCAR needs to do something to make these teams understand that you can not alter the COT. Now if any JR car gets caught again I say NASCAR needs to take serious action to prove a point. Because JR nation makes him NASCAR most popular driver and if the nail him to the wall and make a point I guarantee that no other team will try anything. Hey this is going to be a good chance for Teresa to sabotage JR, inst that right JR nation. Get off Teresa she had nothing to do with this. Move on, I’m sick and tired of hearing this.
to edit somethign above i know its not the COT in the nation wide series, what ment to say is NASCAR need to stop these teams from trying to alter any type of car and follow the rules. sorry for the mistake
You know Truexfan, you can quit with the “JR NATION”. Not everyone is just a diehard Jr fan. AND REMEMBER, IF IT WASNT FOR JR, TRUEX WOULDNT HAVE A JOB, AT LEAST NOT FOR AWHILE!!!
Truexfan…
You really have some nerve calling Jr an all out cheater throughout speedweeks.
In case YOU don’t know… The NATIONWIDE car and the CUP car is taken care of by TWO different crews, two different crew chiefs, etc. This does NOT mean that Jr’s cup car was illegal. Hence, the fact that his 2 WINS are locked in the books because of pre race and post race inspections. Derrrr
You hate Jr so much that no matter what is said you will find the negative. At least with my disdain for Gordon and Johnson, I still find something good to say once in awhile.
The fact IS…. A crew guy did something wrong and he should be and will be punished. Don’t assume Jr knew anything about it. He has more important things to do, with everything going on, to know EVERY little detail of what is happening with those cars! Thus, HE is a DRIVER not a CREW GUY! I don’t care whether he is part owner of this team or not! He has his hands full right now. More then likely he would have known of that if it were any other race then daytona or a double duty race. I am not going to presume to know that for sure, but it seems to be extremely reasonable that is so. And stop with your stupid comments about Teresa. Its just childish.
So, get over it and move on! Man your annoying.
Omg jr88fan it was a joke about speed week so don’t get your panties in a bunch. I give him all the credit in the world for what he did during speed week. I do know about pre and post race inspection and now JR does to. lol now for what you said he is not only a driver but an owner, so he is reasonable for every person he has on his team and payroll. Especially the crew chief, They cheated and they got caught and JR wants to runs things, he wants to take charge doesn’t he, well doesn’t look like he’s got control over his crew chiefs at JR motor sports. So once again he wanted to control every little detail at DEI, but he can’t control his nationwide crew chiefs. I personally believe that any driver/owner knows everything about his car, and if they don’t they should because it’s their name on the line. So if anyone wants to tell me for a second that he had no knowledge of this is just crazy. And if he didn’t have any knowledge of this just goes to show he’s not ready to step up. Now since I know JR nation yall are going to say
“well what about Teresa she’s never in the race shop she doesn’t know everything” well I’ll agree with you and the answer is simple, she’s a hands off owner who pays people to do that and run the shop. Biggest difference is that Teresa never claimed to be a hands on owner and JR has. Hell that’s the reason he wanted the company because he wanted the owner of DEI to be more hands on. And don’t cast the first stone sweetheart; you want to talk about personal bias and hatred, how about you and Teresa? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm, she can’t seem to do anything right in your eyes, but she never been caught cheating. So jr88fan don’t tell me about personal bias and hatered because I call it like I see it and I would be saying the same thing if any owner/driver got caught doing the same thing. If you want to own the car you drive for a living you need to hold yourself to a higher slandered.
Christina
Feb 15th, 2008 at 7:19 pm Quote
“You know Truexfan, you can quit with the “JR NATION”. Not everyone is just a diehard Jr fan. AND REMEMBER, IF IT WASNT FOR JR, TRUEX WOULDNT HAVE A JOB, AT LEAST NOT FOR AWHILE!!!”
yes i give him all te creidt in the world for mentoring truex and i know they personal friends. Jr will be a good owner ONE DAY becasue he does have a eye for tallent, but truex has proven himself in the busch series and in the cup. and trust me i know not everyone is a die heart JR fan and i have no beef with who roots for a earnhardt. was and still a big fan of Big E and i wish Kerry would get back in the sport racing trucks. my beef is with the thousands of people who feel and thing JR cant do anything wrong and when stuff goes wrong threw fault of Jr its teresa’s fault. and when you say something negative about thier golden boy they thinks its the in of the world. Im putting a end to to this. I wish JR all the sucess in the world and hopes he comes home to DEI when hes ready to run the show. As of now hes not, case in point Jr motor sports. So good luck to JR this season, hope you do well, but dont look for me to be wearing green on sundays or at the races i go to
Truexfan…
I hate to burst your bubble. But, Teresa is responsible for cheating! Since she is an owner and all, it all goes back to owner as what your statements are. So, let me go back to the most recent problem I recall that was very largely put out there. Jr and the crew, and your dear Teresa, was nailed for an Illegal pin on the spoiler. I believe that is was just a mere mistunderstanding about what type of pin cvould go in there on the new COT car. Nevertheless, Jr got docked 25 points for it, there was a monetary fine, suspension of crew, etc. Doesn’t THAT go back to DEI? Hmmm I believe so. I also believe there were other little occurances to. But, regardless, every team pushes the limit. I trully believe though, Nascar didn’t have the fine line drawn out when that happened with the pin, and I felt that the punishment was too sever, since it did not affect the cars performance. I believe in whole that everyone is dirty in some way in the sport. Its just a matter of who gets caught, who doesn’t, and how does it affecct the outcome of the vehicles performance. THIS here at Daytona was obviously a performance altering factor. And, Jr, Tony Eury Jr, Hendrick, etc all said that they will not accept what was done by Walter. But all in all, Jr is always into what he has going on.
But, what took place when he wasn’t around is not his fault. Clearly he did not have knowledge of this and if he had, I am sure it would have been fixed. Like I said before, Jr doesn’t need to cheat. And if YOU had read an earlier/other postings of mine you would see that I talk about other things and other drivers. Sure, I made some comments the other day about Teresa so what. YOU are the one that keeps dragging her into all the discussions. And YOU are the one that keeps slamming Jr and “Jr Nation” (which btw-I dont belong to). Your just so he!! bent on slamming Jr you have nothing else to say that’s good or of any value. So, do everyone a favor, just shut up then.
Oh and since you want to talk about Jr wanting “ownership” of DEI, get it right. It wasn’t ownership, it was a percentage. And the RUMOR of that which has not been proven was 51%. BUT, as you also point out, “Teresa is not a hands on owner that’s why she pays people to do that and run the shop”. Your so stupid to say that. You just proved that point everyone has been making. She doesn’t know what’s going on and if she were to, she still doesn’t listen and make the changes necessary to stay competative. In the shop, they had a ton of engine problems and did she do one thing to fix that before all of the drivers for DEI suffered? No. She PAID people to do that work as you say. LMAO Well, why do you think JR wanted SOME say then? Why do you think he jumped ship? DEI is sinking and he knows it and its all because your highness doesn’t know how to run that company right.
So, now I have said what I had to. I am done talking to you about this. Your extremely biased and will never see it any other way. Besides your really boring me with this now. Don’t bother writing back to me on this, I won’t respond.
Back to the real conversations again….
Teresa couldnt sabbatoge anything. She never goes to the track.
Oops. Just a clarification. When I say Jr doesn’t need to cheat. He doesn’t. But, I do believe that ALL of the people involved in the sport, pushes the gray areas as far shading to black they can go. I think that there can be necessary minor change that really isn’t “cheating” per say its on that fine line. Then I think there are those that absoultely slide past what is acceptable for it. I in MY opinion do not think Jr intentionally crosses those. IF they are done, they happen in the shop. And as a driver he knows his car and driving it and handeling it, etc. But I don’t think every driver actually looks at every bolt or spring, etc to see if that are Nascar’s blessed parts.
I know it sounded weird me saying everyone pretty well cheats, then saying Jr doesn’t. My assumption was that everyone will know what I meant. I realize some won’t, so to stave off any comments, I wanted to clear what I believe.