Kevin 'Bono' Manion glad to be back at track with Martin Truex Jr.
By Jeff Gluck - Associate Editor
Friday, September 05, 2008
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RICHMOND, Va. – Crew chief Kevin “Bono” Manion was back at the track with driver Martin Truex Jr. and his Dale Earnhardt Inc. team Friday for the first time since the Chicagoland race on July 12.
Manion and car chief Gary Putnam were suspended for six races apiece after NASCAR discovered the No. 1 Sprint Cup car did not comply with its templates at Daytona International Speedway. DEI appealed the suspensions and points penalty, allowing Manion to remain as the team's crew chief at Chicagoland, but the appeal was denied.
That left Manion at home for six weeks – an experience he found to be mostly miserable.
“I missed it more than I thought I would,” he said. “The first three weeks were unbearable and then I finally had to just give up thinking I was going to go back early on good behavior or something.”
So Manion decided to enjoy the time he had. He dropped his daughter off at the school bus more often than usual. He started several projects at home (though they didn’t get finished). In fact, if the suspension had been a little later in the season, Manion joked that it might not have been so bad.
“Maybe if it was during hunting season it would have been a little bit easier because I at least could have gone hunting every weekend,” he said.
At the shop, Manion was productive. He worked on the team’s future, building two new cars, formulating a plan for 2009 and implementing new standard operating procedures that he said had been neglected.
On Fridays, when the No. 1 team was away at the track, Manion would join Putnam and some team engineers in the DEI conference room and pore over data they received from the team. They ate lunch and ordered ice cream, trying to figure out how to make their cars better from afar.
“It’s basically the same thing you do here, except we’re in air conditioning,” he said. “It’s the same but different. You get information,
but you’re not here looking at things and getting the feel of the driver’s voice and stuff like that.”
Manion politely declined to comment on whether he agreed with the penalty or felt he was treated fairly with NASCAR’s punishment.
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Martin Truex Jr.
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