Penske won't appeal suspension of Kurt Busch's crew chief
Thursday, October 19, 2006
BILL ANDERSON /
NASCAR officials have suspended Kurt Busch's crew chief, Roy McCauley, from all series events until Nov. 1 and fined the team 50 driver and 50 owner points for a rule violation at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
McCauley was also fined $25,000 for the right-rear shock absorber that failed to decompress following Busch's qualifying run. He will be on probation for the remainder of the year.
The point penalty will drop Busch from 14th in the standings to 16th behind Casey Mears and Brian Vickers.
Penske Racing South officials say that Matt Gimbel will fill in as interim crew chief this weekend at Martinsville Speedway. Penske Performance Inc. President Tim Cindric released a statement that said the team will not appeal.
"While we respect the fact that the shock in question did not move the required amount after Kurt's qualifying run, under the rules we are unable to open the shock to determine the reason until the appeal period ends," Cindric said in the statement. "After discussing the situation with our team, I'm convinced that the problem we had with our shock was not an intentional attempt by any member of our team to circumvent NASCAR's rules.
"We do not plan to appeal the decision, but we look forward to opening the shock with NASCAR to determine what caused us to fail post-qualifying inspection."
