Busch Series leader Harvick fails post-race inspection
By Lee Montgomery
Sunday, April 30, 2006
TALLADEGA, Ala. - The left-rear quarterpanel of Busch Series point leader Kevin Harvick's No. 21 Chevrolet was found to be too low in post-race inspection following Saturday's Aaron's 312 NASCAR Busch Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Busch Series director Joe Balash said penalties are expected and should be announced Tuesday, but Harvick would be allowed to keep his second-place finish. Harvick leads the Busch Series standings by 299 points over Richard Childress Racing teammate Clint Bowyer.
Because the race was held at a restrictor-plate track, tolerances are smaller and penalties could be higher.
"The tolerance here is a quarter-inch of yellow, and there's another quarter-inch in the red," Balash said. "It was deep in the red."
Balash said Harvick's crew offered no explanation, not that one would have mattered.
"No excuse," Balash said. "They took rounds [of wedge] out during the event."
Chad Norris, crew chief for Matt Kenseth, was fined $10,000, and his driver and team were docked 25 points because Kenseth's rear quarterpanel was too high in post-race inspection at Texas earlier in April.
Balash said NASCAR needed to check its penalty database to compare past restrictor-plate violations.
Balash also said Kevin Harvick Inc.'s cars of Tony Stewart and Burney Lamar could be facing penalties because of a problem with the wicker bill on the rear spoiler discovered during pre-qualifying inspection. The strip of metal is supposed to have consistent thickness across the strip but part of it was wedged out.
