[vincesanity82]

Doug Duchardt, Hendrick Motorsports vice president of development, says the team didn't appeal NASCAR's penalties this week for two basic reasons: First, the teams of Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson want their crew chiefs back in time to have momentum when the Chase For The Nextel Cup begins, and second, the group now understands what NASCAR views as the lack of a gray area on the car of tomorrow more clearly.Duchardt said the team considered both of these concepts when it decided not to appeal the penalties. After the cars of both were found to have altered fenders on the new car of tomorrow models during initial inspection June 22 at Infineon Raceway, NASCAR parked the cars for the day, and neither team was allowed to practice or qualify. On Tuesday, NASCAR suspended crew chiefs Steve Letarte (Gordon) and Chad Knaus (Johnson) six weeks each, penalized them $100,000 each and assessed each driver and team a penalty of 100 driver and 100 owner points.
"As we went through this, some things came more clear to us as far as what NASCAR's tolerance on their data was - it wasn't as clear to us before last Friday as it is now," Duchardt said Friday at New Hampshire International Speedway, site of this weekend's Lenox Industrial Tools 300.
The primary reason, though, is the teams want to get this over with and get the regular crew chiefs back in place in time to develop some momentum heading into NASCAR's 10-race title-determining Chase For The Nextel Cup.
Only 10 races remain until the Chase begins, and the crew chiefs will miss six of them, which could hurt the teams. The penalties didn't drop Gordon out of the Cup lead - he still has a 171-point edge on Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin - but did drop Johnson to fifth in the standings.
While both Gordon and Johnson are confident the interim crew chiefs - Jeff Meendering for Gordon and Ron Malec for Johnson - will step up admirably, they do worry about the impact the shift could have on the team's momentum.
Johnson has been through this before, losing Knaus for four races in 2005 after a violation was found on the team's car prior to the Daytona 500. Johnson did well in that stretch with interim crew chief Darian Grubb (who is now the crew chief for teammate Casey Mears) and learned lessons that will help the team.
While he says that some aspects of that suspension actually made his team stronger, he also knows how tough it will be to work without the crew chief at this point in the season.
"Momentum is certainly on our minds, top-10s and top-fives," Johnson said.
And that is where Gordon is concerned with the severity of the penalty. He says that he was "blown away" by the severity of it, pointing out that also missing Friday's on-track activities made the penalty even worse than the one assessed Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s team for a car of tomorrow infraction earlier this season.
While his team has depth and can easily push someone into that crew chief role, something that has led others to criticize the suspension as useless, Gordon sees it having an immediate impact.
"This is a severe penalty, and I think the biggest part of it, we were in a fortunate position, the 24 team, points-wise to be able to lose 100 points might not have hurt us as much as some others, but losing Steve and the momentum that we have and the chemistry that we have is definitely the toughest part of this for us," Gordon said. "I've kind of gone off some of Jimmie's experience from last year, where he's experienced some things that actually helped him when Chad came back it actually made them an even more solid team, and I'm hoping for the same thing."
"... One of the factors that played out as to why we didn't want to appeal this is because we want to get Steve back as soon as we can so we can make sure we do have momentum going into the final 10 races."

Johnson, Gordon want crew chiefs back ASAP

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by vincesanity82

Doug Duchardt, Hendrick Motorsports vice president of development, says the team didn't appeal NASCAR's penalties this week for two basic reasons: First, the teams of Jeff Gordon and Jimmie
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Johnson want their crew chiefs back in time to have momentum when fortunate position, the 24 team, points-wise to be able to lose 100 points might not have hurt us as much as some others, but losing Steve and the momentum that we have and the chemistry that we have is definitely the toughest part of this for us," Gordon said. "I've kind of gone off some of Jimmie's experience from last year, where he's experienced some things that actually helped him when Chad came back it actually made them an even more solid team, and I'm hoping for the same thing."
"... One of the factors that played out as to why we didn't want to appeal this is because we want to get Steve back as soon as we can so we can make sure we do have momentum going into the final 10 races."

Johnson, Gordon want crew chiefs back ASAP

I hope you don't really take a lot of stock in this, Vince. To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if someone from the NASCAR PR Dept. didn't have a hand it authoring it. At first glance it really looks like NASCAR put the screws to Team Hendrick, doesn't it?

Toro ca-ca!

Hendrick has probably a half dozen Kevin Grubbs''s lying around just waiting for the call to go in as a sub. Have no fear, Letarte and Knaus are both still calling the important shots via cell phone, IM, blackberry, semaphore and even encoded smoke signal, if needed.

Besides, not having to bother with the inconvenience of showing up at the track Thursday thru Sunday, Knaus and Letarte can stay back at Hendrick Central and become deeply involved in getting their playoff cars ready.

Yeah, giving these guys some time off is really a jab in the solar plexus. In a radio interview just prior to this year's Daytona 500 Knaus said that last years suspension actually was a big benefit to the team and himself!?

Great way to really show the teams who continue to believe that there is actually a "Grey area" (read: latitude to cheat) in the new race car! You go, NASCAR!!!

Continue to follow the NA$CAR Golden Rule; Thou shalt never do anything to deeply offend either a significant team owner nor his sponsors.

[BurtonNascar31]

they both need 2 stop whining and deal with what they and their crew did.

[jks812]

Awwww bless their hearts. If the crew chiefs didn't cheat they wouldn't be having this problem. The really sad part is, they don't have to cheat to run good. It's gonna be a shock if Knaus can ever go a complete year without cheating. Maybe he just don't have as much faith in Jimmie as he said he does.

[Nevadastars]

These guys won't skip a beat in how they run. It's not like the they are going to unload off the truck with junk cars and have lost all communication with their leaders. Losing Cheatin' Chad after Daytona last year sure didnt hurt the 48 last year.

[LSC9901]

A point I find quite sick is that they are "only 10 races away from the chase." Right there, to me anyway, it says that victories are not that important. We need to make the chase. The season isn't quite halway over yet and the concern is for the playoffs and not weekly victories. I do not like the chase plan and this further verifies for me that the only real objective here is to be in the top 12. At that point you are no longer racing 42 other teams ... only 11. Where oh where do I go to get a job in the NASCAR make stupid changes department ?

[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by LSC9901

A point I find quite sick is that they are "only 10 races away from the chase." Right there, to me anyway, it says that victories are not that important. We need to make the chase. The season isn't quite halway over yet and the concern is for the playoffs and not weekly victories. I do not like the chase plan and this further verifies for me that the only real objective here is to be in the top 12. At that point you are no longer racing 42 other teams ... only 11. Where oh where do I go to get a job in the NASCAR make stupid changes department ?

employment.nascar.com

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by Nevadastars

These guys won't skip a beat in how they run. It's not like the they are going to unload off the truck with junk cars and have lost all communication with their leaders. Losing Cheatin' Chad after Daytona last year sure didnt hurt the 48 last year.

You abd I apparently aren't the only one who see thru this charade, Don. You might find the follow opinion piece interesting reading:

Burning Rubber - Opinionated Commentary by Valerie Wood: Hendrick Racing Flipping the Bird at NASCAR from the Motorcoaches

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by LSC9901

A point I find quite sick is that they are "only 10 races away from the chase." Right there, to me anyway, it says that victories are not that important. We need to make the chase. The season isn't quite halway over yet and the concern is for the playoffs and not weekly victories. I do not like the chase plan and this further verifies for me that the only real objective here is to be in the top 12. At that point you are no longer racing 42 other teams ... only 11. Where oh where do I go to get a job in the NASCAR make stupid changes department ?

But Steve. They have playoffs in all the big league stick & ball sports? Do you really want NASCAR to be different.

Oops! Wait a minute. It is different. In stick & ball, when a player goes way afoul of the ref's and umps he gets ejected from the game. In NASCAR they still get to play (IF their team owner's name begins with either H-E-N or P-E-N)and be managed from a separate area.

If NASCAR doesn't get its stuff together, sometime in the future I can see myself apologizing to the stick & ball fans here for drawing a comparison between Stick & ball and WWFORMULANASCAR.

[Nevadastars]

Originally Posted by Bob Tanner

You abd I apparently aren't the only one who see thru this charade, Don. You might find the follow opinion piece interesting reading:

Burning Rubber - Opinionated Commentary by Valerie Wood: Hendrick Racing Flipping the Bird at NASCAR from the Motorcoaches

If Valerie is correct stating the culprits are at the track, my faith in the Na$car higher powers continues to spiral downward. The series is rapidly becoming a laughing stock to many, and is called the WWE of racing, and I can see why.

[jks812]

I agree with what she said in that article. But we already know from the numerous times HMS has been caught and fined and crew chiefs suspended, that they don't care about the rules of Nascar. When they saw LeTarte and Knaus there, they should have escorted them away from the track and told Hendrick if we see them for the next 6 weeks at any track, all of the 24 and 48 teams and crew( drivers included) will serve the remainder of the suspension together. That might would get HMS attention.

[jks812]

Looks like they didn't have to wait long to get em back.

[LSC9901]

Originally Posted by Bob Tanner

But Steve. They have playoffs in all the big league stick & ball sports? Do you really want NASCAR to be different.

Different ??? NO but it would be great if they were in sync. Stick & ball sports have playoffs and championship series after the regular season and without the teams that fail to make it into the playoffs. I remember in the old days when the regular season was 36 races !!!