July 6, 2007
By Allen Madding

Allen Madding

With the penalties handed down to the two Hendrick Motorports teams after both the cars of Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon for failing inspection at the Infineon Raceway road course, a great deal of speculation began about what the penalties would be. In the end, both teams received the identical penalty that Dale Earnhardt’s team received for the illegal spoiler braces: $100,000, 100 points, and the crew chief being suspended for six events.

Considering that this is the third time that Jimmie Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus, has been suspended, it would seem that the current penalties are not making a point with the teams. $100,000 fine to these teams equates to the pain of removing a band-aid from a cut shin – an initial flinch and it is over. Rick Hendrick pays more than $200,000 a month in power bills for his racing team’s shops and his car dealerships. The financial penalty has no impact.

In Dale Earnhardt’s case, the 100-point penalty took him out of the Chase for the Cup at the time the penalty was enforced. However, in this case, Jeff Gordon’s 100-point penalty does not even drop him from the points lead. So, is the points penalty really working?

Suspending the crew chief seems to be more painful until you consider how it Hendrick Motorsports responded to the last time Johnson’s crew chief was suspended. Chad Knaus sat in a hotel just outside the track utilizing internet messaging, the television broadcast, listening to the team radios, and of course utilizing Nextel phones. Basically the crew chief was sitting outside the track with all of the same technology in front of him that he does when he sits on top of the team’s pit box.

During pre-race coverage at New Hampshire, NASCAR’s Robin Pemberton admitted the suspended crew chief could be sitting in the grandstands and not be in breach of the suspension. So, does suspending the crew chief really work?

NASCAR’s John Darby mentioned this week that he would consider suspending team engineers next, but what would that accomplish if the engineer could sit in a hotel room or a van in the parking lot with all of the same technology and communicate changes to the teams? Such a penalty is without teeth.

NASCAR needs to stop and re-evaluate the entire situation. From appearances, Chad Knaus does not seem to pay much attention to NASCAR’s current penalty structure. If he did, he would not continue to allow actions that would get him in NASCAR’s penalty box.

What is a better solution? When Ted Musgrave intentionally plowed into Kelly Bires truck after the two had crashed, NASCAR took the situation seriously and elected to get Musgrave’s attention. They did so by suspending Musgrave. Take the driver out of an event and the penalty has some teeth.

Many say it would be unfair to penalize the driver, as the driver has no control or knowledge of what team members are doing in preparation for a race. Many say it is unfair to penalize the crew chief for the same reasons. How about penalizing the whole team? If the violations do not stop after suspending the crew chief, suspend the entire team. That is right. Suspend the crew chief, driver, all crewmembers and the car from competing in an event.

When the penalty seems steep enough, the teams will shy away from encroaching on the rulebook.

NASCAR needs to implement an escalation path for its penalties. If teams know that the first time they violate a rule the crew chief will be suspended, they may or may not give it a second thought. However, if they know that the next time they are found with a rule infraction that the entire team will be suspended from competition, they may give it serious consideration.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.