DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Prior to practice for this weekend’s events at Daytona International Speedway, quite a few NASCAR teams had trouble making it through inspection.
NASCAR officials ended up confiscating 16 roof flap spacers from various Sprint Cup Series teams. As a result, some were late getting on track for practice. The spacers are what support the hinge bar of the roof flaps – which are designed to keep the cars grounded during spins – according to NASCAR spokesmen Kerry Tharp, who announced the violations.
The teams [one from Chevrolet, eight Fords and six Toyotas] included all of the Richard Petty Motorsports, Roush Fenway, Roger Penske, Michael Waltrip, and Joe Gibbs Racing cars. Jamie Murray, Casey Mears and Trevor Bayne’s cars were also found to be in violation.
Tharp said the parts were not in compliance with the manufacturer kits. Following both NSCS practice sessions, NASCAR then found 15 Nationwide Series cars with the same violations, bringing the total to 31 cars.
Those drivers included championship contenders Brian Vickers and Trevor Bayne. Other drivers found were Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Travis Pastrana, Cole Whitt, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Landon Cassill, Blake Koch, Mike Bliss, Michael Annett, Reed Sorenson, Robert Richardson Jr., Jason White and Dexter Stacey.
There was no word on whether penalties would be forthcoming from the violations, which would be announced following race weekend.
If it was an isolated incident, I’d see no problem in penalizing the team. Because most of the Cup teams are in Chase contention, I’d hate to see something this widespread knock teams out after Richmond.