Haas CNC suffers severe penalties after rival teams report rules infraction
By Jeff Gluck - Associate Editor
Thursday, June 05, 2008
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NASCAR came down hard on Haas CNC Racing for having illegal wing-mounting locations on its two cars during the Coca-Cola 600 race weekend, slamming the No. 66 and No. 70 Sprint Cup teams with unprecedented penalties.
But the penalties were no surprise in the garage, as NASCAR followed through on its pledge to crack down on teams that tamper with the new car.
Each team was docked a record 150 driver and owner points and had their crew chiefs suspended for six weeks with standard $100,000 fines. But, in a new twist, the teams also had their car chiefs suspended for six weeks.
“It was pretty shocking,” said Matt Borland, Haas CNC’s competition director. “[The penalty] is huge. ... We’ve got a two-car race team. We get a lot of our equipment from other places so we don’t have that staff of people building those things. To take four of the top managers out of our program is a tough deal to handle.”
The penalties could have a major, long-term impact on Haas’ teams. It knocked driver Scott Riggs and the No. 66 team from being firmly locked into the top 35 in owner points to being on the precipice of falling out heading into Dover. (Riggs finished 39th in the race, and the team fell from 34th to 36th in the owner standings.)
Crew chief Bootie Barker will be replaced by Borland in the interim.
The No. 70 team, which has no regular driver, failed to qualify at Dover with driver Jason Leffler and crew chief Steve Genenbacher, who is filling in for the suspended Dave Skog.
Borland said he was unsure whether the team would appeal the penalties.
Riggs said it appeared NASCAR was just making an example out of Haas. He objected to NASCAR suspending the car chiefs, who typically are second in command.
“Tell me what the reason is that they take the crew chiefs – because those are the guys that are responsible, right? Those are the guys that are making the calls,” Riggs said. “So if you’re going to make somebody responsible, how are you going to make two people responsible for the same crime?
“We just gotta survive, man.”
But in the rest of the garage, there was little sympathy for Haas. Driver after driver said teams understand NASCAR’s position that the new car cannot be messed with, and that such infractions will be dealt with harshly.
“I love it,” Elliott Sadler said. “Keep ramping it up. Keep making the penalties stiffer and stiffer. We’ll get some of these crew chiefs who think that they are smarter than everybody else to start playing by the rules.”
Said Jimmie Johnson: “You can’t fool around with this car. They’re going to nail you.”
Echoed Dale Earnhardt Jr.: “I like that [NASCAR is] harsh. I want them to be harsh.”
In fact, it was hard to find anyone outside of the Haas organization who disagreed with the penalty. On the other hand, there was plenty of disagreement with another aspect of the infraction.
The illegal bracket positioning was apparently noticed by other teams in the garage and brought to NASCAR’s attention. It’s an aspect of NASCAR’s so-called self-policing garage that some like and others don’t.
In NASCAR, the garage stalls are open and allow teams to see what others are doing. That’s different from other motorsports, such as Formula One, where teams are insulated from one another and blocked by walls.
“Secrets don’t stay secrets very long in the NASCAR community,” Sadler said. “Whether it’s a cheating thing or it’s a performance thing, other people can see you and all the teams are so close together. NASCAR does that for a reason. ... It keeps competition tighter and closer.”
Veteran driver Mark Martin said that earlier in his career, other teams wouldn’t tell on cheaters – they’d try to make their cars the same.
“Our ethics were not to be a tattletale,” Martin said. “If someone was doing something and getting away with it, we just did it, too. You kind of felt like a man back then – you didn’t tell on anybody. ... It is a different time and day and age.”
Johnson said he had mixed feelings about the self-policing philosophy. On one hand, he said, the system works well. On the other hand, he said, “It sucks when you get ratted out.”
At least one driver doesn’t think there should be any tattletales, period.
“Nobody likes a rat, even if the guy is cheating,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “You want NASCAR to find it. That’s how it needs to happen.”
– Bob Pockrass contributed to this story
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