Should NASCAR reverse penalty on Edwards?
Quote selected text Published September 27th, 2007 in NASCAR News
NASCAR has a number of Ford-minded conspiracy theorists who are convinced that the sanctioning body smiles on the Chevrolet contingent and especially Hendrick Motorsports.
I’ve never been sucked into that nonsense but NASCAR sure gave the Ford-lovers more ammunition after docking Dover winner Carl Edwards 25 points Tuesday.
The 25-point penalty was indeed ridiculous. Following NASCAR’s win Sunday the post-race inspection found that Edwards’ right rear quarter-panel was a bit low and a tad narrow and that is clearly against the rules. That rule wasn’t created for tracks like Dover, though.
NASCAR had the good sense to say it was an inadvertent mistake, which it was, because the infraction obviously hurt the performance of Edward’s car rather than helping it.
How’s that you ask? Had the same infraction occurred at Talladega next week it would have been major. Drivers want as much quarter-panel out of the wind as possible to streamline the car and make it faster. Had that infraction occurred next week at Talladega it would have greatly enhanced the speed of Edwards’ car.
That isn’t the case at Dover where downforce is so important. Drivers want as much rear quarter-panel in the wind as possible to plant the rear end in the long, sweeping turns. The mistake, which I’m wondering why NASCAR didn’t catch in the pre-race inspection, hurt Edwards Sunday instead of helping him.
A fine would have been appropriate. A deduction in points was not.
A Ford fan was quick to point out to me that Hendrick driver Jeff Gordon was found to have a quarter-panel that was too low at Daytona in February and he did not receive a penalty in points. Instead, Gordon was placed at the rear at the start of the Daytona 500.
More at The Birmingham News
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Whether it hurt him or helped him, it doesn’t matter. Whether he did it on purpose or not, that doesn’t matter either. NASCAR made it clear that the COT was not to be messed with. Jr, Gordon, Johnson, they all got the 100,100,supspension. Why didn’t Edwards? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t necessarily think it’s fair either, but not for the same reasons. Gordon should have got the same 100,100,suspension in the 500. If NASCAR is going to make that the rule, than it needs to stay the rule, Chevy, Ford, Chase, no Chase. Shouldn’t matter! Make up your frickin minds so we can just watch the race!
thats complete b.s. i can understand a fine, but points? no. like they said its not like he was wayyy faster then anyone, so who cares. like it says, when gordon had that problem he started at the rear, wow big deal. edwards got the points because nascar does not like fords, they want chevys to be the only thing to win and they are making it pretty obvious. how do you think gordon got most of his championships? oh nascar giving him wins with caution strategies. thats why martin hasnt won a much deserved championship. nascar is becoming really stupid which is why im getting out of it, nascar pretty much knows whos going to win everyweek.it needs to go back to the old days using factory bodies and if a car companies aerodynamics arent good enough, so be it its their responsibility to make it better. this is a very rough subject for me im done.
Jr was fined 100 points for brackets that Nascar also determined would have hurt his car, and that he didn’t even race with. Edwards raced with his violation so the point penalty should stand, and he’s lucky it was that low.
I agree with Dark Knight and the first Guest.
No conspiracy here.
Ditto Andy, I agree with Dark Knight and the first Guest.
No conspiracy here.
It may not be a conspiracy but you can’t say that it has pretty much destroyed Carl’s chances at winning the title this year. It wasn’t 100 points b/c it wasn’t a COT related enhancement, the rule is the same with the current car. And to fuel your conspiracy theory 2 weeks ago in Loudon, the same quarter panel was deemed too low on Tony Stewarts car during post race inspection but NO penalty. According to NASCAR it was off b/c of contact made during the race…if I’m not mistaken Greg Biffle and others came up and gave Carl congradulatory “taps” aka CONTACT, after winning on Sunday. Not to mention now the top 5 in the chase are Chevys! WHOA…what a coincedence.
pay back is hell isnt it.
It’s not a Conspiracy, It’s a bold well known fact Nascar isn’t paying enough over the table and none under it like GM has for decades! Nascar TKO’d Mark Martin back in the early 90’s with a points penalty because of a BS too tall of a manifold on his car. He lost the championship that year by less points to guess who? Old Mr. Chevy himself Earnhardt Sr. GM Goodwrench was dumping the first multi million dollar sponsorship in Nascar to RCR and to make sure bowtie got it’s money’s worth they were sponsoring Nascar things everything from the name of the races to the ads on TV. Edwards should had been fined, YES because it wasn’t fitting the specs, but if it wasn’t on purpose and it was deemed not helping their performance then why the points deducted? They already are looking for ways to make sure next time Gordon has a huge points lead going into the chase, that he gets something extra. WHY? In the NFL you have a near perfect season and that means nothing when it comes time for playoffs. If you lose once you’re out. The same should hold true here. I thought they wanted the points close in the final races….I guess it depends upon who’s leading them. As Stewart said they make it like the WWE wrestling….rigged and fake.
wrote:
Are you joking? He’s 3 points out from the lead! Nothing has been destroyed!
ALL I HAVE TO SAY CARL IS ONE LUCKY PERSON!!! 25 pts big deal
3 pts. before the penalty…now he’s in 6th 28 pts. out of the lead! Now he’s mired in the middle behind the likes of Gordon, Johnson, and Stewart. It’s going to be an uphill battle here on out, and when every point counts it’s going to be tough. Hence the destroyed comment…
apsolutly not
The article ends with the comment about Gordon at Daytona. The big difference here is that they caught Gordon BEFORE the race and sent him to the back. I’m sure it would have been a different story had he gotten caught after he WON the race.
And the article states that the infraction hurt his performance. Well, it couldn’t have been too bad, he won didn’t he?
ISN’T IT NICE TO HEAR THESE FORD LOVERS CRY. IT SEEMS THAT A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO WE WAS HEARING THE SAME THINGS FROM THE CHEVY PEOPLE WHEN JACK ROUSE WAS WINNING EVERYTHING. SORRY EVERYBODY BUT SUPERMAN EDWARDS GOT WHAT HE DESERVES.
Maybe the reason Nascar didnt notice it in the prerace inspections was BECAUSE it wasnt low then! As much beatin and banging was done during and after the race I’m not surprised it was 3/8 inch too low. Why dont we put a template on Truexs car after the race and see what you get…it was a crashfest and alot of cars would fail post race inspection. I hope he wins about 3 or 4 more races and this topic wont mean anything.
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Yes…NASCAR said not to mess with the COT. BUT, do you understand that it wasn’t messed with on purpose. Greg Biffle gave the #99 a few congratulation taps on the back of the car after they crossed the finish line. So the COT was messed with after the race, so it was a “after the fact issue”. And I’m sure there will be plenty of other COT cars that will have this problem. Which I’m sure NASCAR will give a penalty or points taken away from some other driver who doesn’t deserve it.
Hang Carl. I like the kid but rules are rules. Ask Martin about the time it happened to him when Pemberton was his crew chief and they lost just enough points to lose the title to Big E. That was a Roush team too. I guess someone didn’t learn from past mistakes.
GM has always fed the big boys with more money and the best parts available…and I think NASCAR turns there heads on a lot of things.Chev.has ALWAYS had the advantage for years.
When J Gordon was penalized, before the
Daytona 500, he wasn’t driving a COT. There-
fore the COT rule of 100 points, did not apply.
Maybe, if the rule infraction of the low fender
was admitted to (by NASCAR) before the race,
then the penalty (could have should have) been 100 points, no practice, no qualify, and put to the end of the line to start the race–ie. JJ and JG. Don’t forget the low fender didn’t help Kyle Busch, or J Sauter, but they were penalized 25 points. Edwards can run over enough drivers, Sunday (Kansas) to make up his 25 points.
I personally do not think they should have taken points from Edwards. I want to see Nascar go back to the “Good Old Days” when it was truly stock cars…each manufacturer had their models racing. This COT is making it so every car is EXACTLY alike… I Hate that! That does not show which model or car manufacturer is the best. It makes all the cars look alike and that is stupid to me. If I wanted to see cars made exactly alike, I would watch Formula 1 races. And why was Edwards fender not found in pre-race inspection? If they did not catch it then…that is their fault. Penalize the pre-race inspectors, not the driver.
Nascar is going to keep on making these stupid calls, and they are going to lose a 50 year old woman who has watched Nascar since she was 6 years old. I am sick of Nascar trying to make the cars exactly alike. I am sick of the rules applying to one car owner and not the others. I am sick of the rules changing weekly. Nascar is all about money now. The thrill of Nascar is gone for me.
I guess some people expect Nascar to play favorites. If the fines and point deductions stand
for the #5 and the #70 then it has to stand here. Tony should have been fined last week for his
failing also but that’s over and done with.