The disparity between the teams at the top of the Nextel Cup circuit and those at the bottom widened a little more on Friday at Infineon Raceway.On the surface, NASCAR's penalties keeping Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson parked in the garage during Friday's on-track activities seemed severe. Not allowing the teams to qualify after finding something wrong with the front ends of each car tried to send the message that Car of Tomorrow violations will not be tolerated.
But the message that teams are going to hear is that it's OK for the big guys to get caught "working in the gray area."
Both Gordon and Johnson will make the Chase for the Nextel Cup this season. Gordon could skip out on the Toyota SaveMart 350 altogether and retain the points lead while sitting in an easy chair next to his new baby girl's crib. Johnson, too, is solidly in the top-12, and both drivers have already earned bonus points for wins this season, ones that will be applied when the Chase gets underway at New Hampshire in September.
Not being allowed to qualify only means that crew chiefs Steve Letarte (No. 24) and Chad Knaus (No. 48) will have to be a little creative early in Sunday's race with pit strategy to try and earn some track position. By the halfway mark of the event, we'll hardly remember all this hullabaloo.
And sure, NASCAR will likely fine, suspend and dock points from a variety of people on both teams sometime next week.
But as we all know, qualifying these days only truly matters to the teams outside the top-35 in points. And if any of those teams were caught with the same things the Hendrick guys were before practice on a Friday morning, they'd be out of a whole lot more than a few practice laps.
They'd be going home before they ever hit the track.
I'm of the mind-set that if it happens before practice, before qualifying, then teams should have the chance to right the wrong. Sure, the bigger teams will still have an advantage, but at least the little guys would have their chances to push the envelope and recover from wrongdoing.
Because by simply pretending to play big, bad, tough guy, NASCAR has sent the wrong message.
The unspoken truth in all this Infineon mess is that the Hendrick, Childress and Roush teams of the Cup world can tinker and survive. But the bottom feeders better not try too hard to pick up speed by working in the "gray area" of the rulebook.
If NASCAR doesn't like what it sees when one of those teams hits the tech shack, there will be no chance to fix it and make amends. They'll park you for the day and end your weekend before you ever hit the track for a single lap of practice.
2 comments:
If NASCAR doesn't like what it sees when one of those teams hits the tech shack, there will be no chance to fix it and make amends. They'll park you for the day and end your weekend before you ever hit the track for a single lap of practice.
And of course you have proof of that allegation correct?
When was the last time a team was sent home?
In fact the last time I remember it was Harvick for an infraction that occurred in another series.
Somehow I wouldn't consider Harvick's team RCR one of the small teams.
If a team without a guaranteed starting spot (top-35) was not allowed to qualify, they'd be heading home.
If an RCR or Hendrick team wasn't allowed to qualify, as was the case with Gordon and Johnson, they still get in the race by virtue of their top-35 standing.
It's not about a team being sent directly home, it's about teams being sent home because they aren't allowed to qualify.
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