Riggs says NASCAR penalties ‘don’t fit the crime’
Quote selected text Published June 2nd, 2008 in NASCAR News
Scott Riggs believes NASCAR blew the call. Riggs said the penalties levied against Haas-CNC Motorsports for alterations to its new car were too steep. The penalties crippled Riggs’ No. 66 Chevrolet in the points standings and put him in serious danger of falling outside the top 35 and losing his guaranteed spot in the field.
Riggs said the severe penalties - which included suspensions, fines and docked points - simply “don’t fit the crime.”
“If it was something we had done one time and we’re trying to get by with something and it was affecting the car, I’d say yeah, we were doing something wrong,” Riggs said on Saturday. “But it was something that had been on the car all year that NASCAR had seen. All of a sudden, somebody else from another team saw it, didn’t like it. And since the other team didn’t like it, NASCAR decided it didn’t like it.”
Crew chiefs Robert “Bootie” Barker and Dave Skog and car chiefs Derick Jennings and Thomas Harris started suspensions for tampering with their Chevrolets’ rear wings last weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The team personnel were suspended for six weeks for violating rules with the wing mounting locations. The crew chiefs also were fined $100,000, while the drivers and teams were penalized 150 points.
NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said there could be a slim possibility that the infractions had been missed in previous inspections, but that, “it doesn’t mean it was right.”
“Once we found it, we reacted swiftly and severely,” he said.
Bookmark to:
- Haas team appealing NASCAR penalties for rear wing infractions
- National Stock Car Commission upholds Haas CNC penalties
- Penalties for Gibbs teams more like slap on wrist
- Evernham says race team has taken reputation hit from NASCAR penalties
- Kyle Petty gives his thoughts on NASCAR issues of the day
Dude can say what he wants, but this is something of the standard penalty for messing with the new car, like it or not! You think the penalty is too severe? Keep your wing mounts in the right spot and it won’t be an issue.
As it was said in the other thread about them getting busted, just because NASCAR might not have seen it before doesn’t make it legal!
yeah nascar already said not to tamper with this car…and those who do will be severely punished….until people realize this..nascar is gonna keep uping the fines/penalties…they may start suspending the drivers to…boy wouldnt that be a mess
It doesn’t have to fit the crime, it just has to prove the point.
THE PENALTY DEPENDS ON THE TEAM.IF IT WAS TOYOTA THE OLD WINK WINK NOD WOULD HAVE TAKEN PLACE.
oildealer wrote:
Here we go with the tinfoil beanie crowd and the conspiracy theories! Why on earth would Toyota get a pass on something like illegal wing brackets?
id like to know when the penalty went from 100 points to 150. thats a little unfair. thats somthing that should not change until the season is over. everybody else up to this point has lost 100. give them both 50 back and change the penalty for next year.
strech wrote:
This is a good question. Why is theirs 150 and everyone else got 100? All the other penalties with the new car have been 100. I looked around online and haven’t found any explanation for why it was 50pts more.
The only thing I can think of would be that NASCAR knew other teams were monkeying with the wing brackets and wanted to send a message to everyone to cut it out.
Why did the legal smoking age go from whatever it was to 18? Because things Change, and sometimes (like this case with the points) they change for the better.
Obviously the previous penalty amounts had not been strong enough because even after seeing the lowest they had coming for them they still went out and CHEATED.