Following a five hour meeting with the National Stock Car Appeals Board at NASCAR’s Research and Development Center on Wednesday, Richard Childress told the Associated Press that his appeal has been denied. Childress will now appeal the board’s decision to NASCAR’s chief appellate officer.
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[/media-credit]Childress was appealing NASCAR’s penalty of the No. 33 team from penalties at Loudon, the race in which the team was victorious. Team owner Childress was fined $150,000 and the team’s crew chief Shane Wilson was suspended for six races. Most importantly, though, NASCAR issued a 150-point penalty to Clint Bowyer and Childress. The points fine dropped Bowyer from second to 12th, after his victory skyrocketed him up the points standings.
The penalty was for the car’s left-rear being 130-thousandths of an inch too high, or 60-thousandths of an inch over NASCAR’s 70-thousandths of an inch tolerance.
“We know without a shadow of a doubt that that car left (our shop for the race) within the tolerances, well within the tolerances,” Childress said last week.
Richard Childress Racing claims that a wrecker that pushed Bowyer’s car to victory lane caused the damage, a claim that the appeals board did not deny.
The team was warned four days before the Loudon event that there car from Richmond was very close to tolerances. In their warning, NASCAR also informed the team that there car would be taken to NASCAR’s R&D Center following the race at New Hampshire.
With the penalty and Bowyer’s 25th place finish last weekend at Dover, he now sits 285-points behind Denny Hamlin with eight races to go in the chase.
It’s the 133rd appeal since 1999, according to NASCAR. This would mark the 89th time that a penalty was upheld. Only 42 penalties have been reduced or overturned in that time period.
