It seems these days that it is mostly news Dale Earnhardt Jr. is hugging. Days after the press conference announcing his split with the Dale Earnhardt Inc., Junior is at the headlines again out of a NASCAR Rule 20 violation. Junior was meted with a fine of $1000,000, and an additional penalty of 100-driver point deduction put Junior at the front pages.
Unprecedented in NASCAR history, the penalty is the highest ever imposed by the racing body on a driver. Aside from Junior, DEI crew chief Tony Eury was also fined, coupled with a two-month suspension which is likely to leave DEI without a crew chief in next week's Nextel All-Star Challenge at Concord.
The alleged violation refers to DEI's not meeting the NASCAR-approved upper and lower rear wing mounting brackets of 16 degrees angle. Excerpt from the DEI statement shows the company pointing to mistake as the cause of the violation.
�The car in question was a brand new car for the No. 8 team and the brackets that were found to be nonconforming were built as test pieces before the final design was established by NASCAR. They should not have been on the car and with Tony Eury Jr. away from the track Thursday during inspection, the error was not caught.�
The penalty is under appeal, but Eury's suspension and Junior's point deduction remain executory. Junior dropped from 12th (1,260 points) to 14th and put him outside the cut line for the Chase for the Nextel Cup.
No comments:
Post a Comment