All these COT penalties are a load of donkey poop. I agree with Hammond on this...........
Jeff Hammond: When NASCAR puts a template on something, they say, “Here are the guidelines, but you can still work on the car.” NASCAR sold this car as still having a lot of tunability to it. NASCAR president Mike Helton and VP of competition Robin Pemberton said the car wasn’t only safe, but it still had areas in which teams could work. NASCAR needs to be more forgiving in certain situations until everybody understands the new rules. It’s a new car, and everybody is going through a learning curve. As long as it fits the templates and measurements, teams should be able to work in other areas, and NASCAR should be lenient until the sport completely understands this new car.
Pemberton and Nextel Cup director John Darby told me last weekend that a winning race car can go through post-race inspection at the track, but it can still be subject to penalties when it’s taken back to NASCAR’s research and development center. If they find something that they don’t like about the car when they rescan it or feel like a team worked in an area that the templates missed during at-track inspection, that team can be charged points ... after the race. That’s scary.
Teams pay NASCAR to inspect our cars multiple times at the track, and teams also pay NASCAR to certify and inspect these Cars of Tomorrow before they go to the track. Now, they’re taking cars back to R&D after winning a race to determine whether or not you’ve exceeded the rules because you may have done something that can’t be seen by the naked eye. You may have done something wrong and not even known that you did it wrong. A machine and some arbitrary decisions have to be made before a team can know for sure that they won a race and didn’t do anything wrong. That’s what’s scary.
At the track, if NASCAR doesn’t like something about a car, they can park a team for a practice session. That policy can be detrimental to teams that aren’t doing anything intentional and need track time because they are on the outside of the top 12 for the Chase or top 35 for a guaranteed spot in a race. There’s no hard-and-fast rule that says, “This is too much and we’re going to park you for a practice session” Plus, you may wind up losing money and points on top of it all.
Teams aren’t working in a gray area; they’re working in the dark. The spirit of NASCAR has never been chracterized as “Don’t touch, period.” That’s not what has made NASCAR into what it is today. NASCAR has had a huge hand in the development of this new race car, but the competitors are fine-tuning this thing and making it into the show that Bill France Jr. was so proud of. I just hope an undefined inspection procedure won’t be a show-stopper.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/6960114
BREAKING NEWS ON TONY EURY JR.............
Official Announcement to be made tomorrow that Tony Eury Sr is Leaving DEI........
to be Director of Competition at Jr Motorsports per Claire B on XM. She said she had heard for weeks that he NEVER actually took that position he was offered, as DEI tried to say. He had just been staying home. Not going to DEI to work at all.
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Good for you TJ!!!!!!!!
The problem is that HMS was NOT working in a gray area as everyone keeps asserting. According to Pemberton, when the COT was introduced, NASCAR gave the teams two documents. One was a color-coded diagram of the car illustrating what areas were off limits, what areas allowed for limited tinkering, what areas allowed for unlimited tinkering. Second was for those who cannot read an illunstration -- a list of areas of the car that are fully hands off, what areas allow fo some tempering, and what areas allow for full tempering.
HMS was given these documents. The #24 and #48 did know or should have known the area they were messing with was hands-off.
He went on to say that they (NASCAR) are trying to "rein these cars in" to "make things more competitive in the garages." I think they are making it more and more like IROC, which I hated. I think they are making it LESS competitive.