France says NASCAR will win rules battles

[Sparky1329]

Hammer down!

snippet:

"We could have any penalty structure and (still) face somebody willing to think they can outsmart us," France said.

"Ultimately, we'll prevail. … The first thing you have to do if you're us is to make sure that there's a high degree of confidence with the other race teams, fans and others that whoever won the race last weekend did it fair and square. That's our first important point we have to make. And we think we're there. The premise of keeping a fair playing field, the confidence of garage area is intact and will remain intact."

In using NASCAR's weekly teleconference to give his midseason thoughts on the state of the sport, France said the sanctioning body doesn't want to prevent a team from competing in an event as a result of a rules violation, but that it would if it feels it's necessary.

"We'd like to make the deterrent significant enough that that isn't necessary for us to do," he said. "But are we willing to go there? Of course."

http://www.thatsracin.com/242/story/5260.html

[Mark in Oshawa]

They get any tougher, they will make Knaus and Letarte sit in a 5 star hotel room talking on their cell phones and computers....

[blakebeatty]

Hey! It was beloved Jr's crew chief that started this. It was the fact that it was reported that EURY JR was in a motorcoach off of one of the turns making pit calls. Don't turn this into a Hendrick Motorsports thing...

[harvick#1]

you don't think Knaus and Latarte were doin the same thing ;)


there is a very very very easy way in suspending the crew chief from the track, detention :p :

have all suspended CC go to the white Nextel Hauler during each day on race weekend and have them sit there all day with no Communications to their respected teams or anyone else, they can then sit quitely in the Hauler and watch the race. :)

the sad thing is, that thats how it should be done :mark:

[muggle not]

Hey! It was beloved Jr's crew chief that started this. It was the fact that it was reported that EURY JR was in a motorcoach off of one of the turns making pit calls. Don't turn this into a Hendrick Motorsports thing...You are correct, read the following article in our local paper:

Wednesday, July 4, 2007
NASCAR penalties might get tougher

Article By Dustin Long - Staff Writer

NASCAR chairman Brian France hinted Tuesday that suspensions to crew chiefs and other team members for infractions might become more severe.

France's comments, during a conference call with reporters, came after Tony Eury Jr.'s brazen display this past weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway. Eury, Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief, served the final race of his seven-week suspension, but was visible outside the track.

A suspended crew chief is not allowed in the garage or pits and can't communicate with the driver on the team's radio when the car is on the track. Other than that, anything goes in this technological world of instant messages, e-mails and cell-phone calls. Typically, suspended crew chiefs keep a low profile, although they are not violating their suspension by being in public areas of the track.

Eury parked his motor home on a hill along the backstretch, where he could see all of the 1.058-mile speedway. He sat in a lawn chair atop his motor home with a computer on his lap. Eury listened to the radio chatter between Earnhardt and the team and took notes.

Asked if such actions were a crew chief's way of skirting a suspension, France said: "We just had a meeting on that with Mike Helton, myself and others. We will be ... if that all is accurate ... we will be addressing that shortly."

Helton is NASCAR president.

France offered no timetable and wouldn't say what actions NASCAR officials might take. The sanctioning body likely will try to curtail what Eury did because series officials don't like to be shown up.

France also said NASCAR will be "very tough on people that test us with the Car of Tomorrow. The whole premise is built around not being able to do much, fudging much, with the car."

He pointed to recent penalties to the Hendrick Motorsports teams of drivers Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson for failing an initial inspection at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.

NASCAR prohibited those teams from one practice session and qualifying, forcing both to start at the rear of the field. It was the first time NASCAR had done that in several years.

Forcing both to start at the rear "pretty much eliminated them from contention of winning that race in our view," France said.

France's comment was a rare acknowledgement by a series official that preventing a team from winning played into what penalty to issue.

Gordon, the Nextel Cup series points leader, finished seventh in the race, and Johnson was 17th.

France said series officials would not customize penalties for each team based on circumstances.

"We will find the right penalties, believe me," he said. "A lot of people, including the Hendrick organization, thought we went too far. It's a balance.

"The question always is: Are we putting the right punishment to the crime? We could have any particular penalty structure, and we could face somebody that is willing to think they can outsmart us and get through something, whatever. They may be in a desperation situation, taking a risk.

"We're very confident, that, as Mike Helton said over a year ago, we're going to escalate these penalties to a level that it's not worth taking the risk."

Greensboro news-record.com

[Old3Fan]

Perenial offenders like Chad Knaus should be banned for life. Drivers should get set down for several races instead of $ fines and probation for bad violations and behavior. (:

[call_me_andrew]

Perenial offenders like Chad Knaus should be banned for life.

It's only the second time he's been caught.

And on an episode of NASCAR Performance, he did mention that teams will modify the rear of the cars to make them wider at restrictor plate tracks. Expect a debacle at Talladega this fall.

[ShadowCar]

Hey! It was beloved Jr's crew chief that started this. It was the fact that it was reported that EURY JR was in a motorcoach off of one of the turns making pit calls. Don't turn this into a Hendrick Motorsports thing...

I listened to the race on Junior's channel and you never heard him (TEJr.) on the radio at all. As we know, he was there ....in fact Junior gave a shout-out to him as he went by....but he wasn't conferring with the team. So NASCAR can huff and puff about it, but they have no evidence he broke their rules.

The team was joking that they hoped he kept his shirt on this weekend! :o

[call_me_andrew]

I listened to the race on Junior's channel and you never heard him (TEJr.) on the radio at all. As we know, he was there ....in fact Junior gave a shout-out to him as he went by....but he wasn't conferring with the team. So NASCAR can huff and puff about it, but they have no evidence he broke their rules.

The team was joking that they hoped he kept his shirt on this weekend! :o

Yeah, they're not allowed to talk on the radio, but they can still talk to the team via cell phone.

[blakebeatty]

Yeah, plus the pit boxes are all computer networked individually. They said that Eury was on a laptop, there is no reason why he wasn't monitoring and commanding via that also

[Sparky1329]

NASCAR can keep the crew chiefs out of the pit/paddock area but they can't stop them from being anywhere there is fan access. NASCAR also can't prevent electronic contact by computer or cell phone. A "detention" like harv suggested is about the only way NASCAR could control the actions of suspended crew chiefs throughout a racing weekend and that's by keeping an eye on them live and in person. I wonder how that would sit with team owners.

[call_me_andrew]

Maybe they should have a system where cheating crew chiefs have one finger removed per infraction. Then to make things more interesting, all track I.D.'s and credentials will be replaced by thumb print identification systems. ;)

[R. Mears]

The way things are going I'm not suprised they don't hang Knaus and Letarte at the drop of the green flag and let them hang there the whole race so the crowd can chant "hang the cheaters" "hang the cheaters" the whole race.