Cheating Infractions - Already!

[macdaddy]

Chad Knaus, crew chief of Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet, has been ejected from any further participation in 2006 Daytona 500 activities...

The qualifying time of the No. 96 Chevrolet driven by Terry Labonte was also disallowed.

NASCAR left the door open for further action, saying in a statement that “Additional penalties for both cars will be determined following the Daytona 500.”

Story.

The rules are set out, plain as day. Templates are available, and the teams know that the officials are going to use them. Carbs are strictly regulated. How could anyone expect to not be caught? I've never understood this.

[rustyfan]

It's the Daytona 500, the Superbowl of stock car racing - outright cheating or venturing far into the gray areas of the rulebook have been part of the tradition for as long as the race has been around.

EDIT - By the way, Tom Jensen has an interesting piece on the topic of cheating and bending the rules.

Sort of comes with the territory when you give the teams the ability to do pretty much all the work on the car themselves. Formula 1 is the same way (remember BAR and the gas-tank fiasco recently?) and US open-wheel racing used to be the same way, especially at Indy where there were quite a few rules being bent throughout the years

[ss_collins]

have you read cheating? great book on nascar cheats and how they get caught. - We run a cheat of the month in the mag spirit of smokey yunick an all that

[Snapper Baz]

It will be interesting to see what sort of greeting Hendrick now gets at the 500, everyone fealt for them after the plane crash but this will do them no good at all and may have big reprocusions on the team this year.

[ss_collins]

yeah but baz cheatin is part of nascar, just read the nascar pages in racecar every month - this looks quite minor actually compared to the hits evernhams took.

[macdaddy]

Nine days later, the penalties have been dished out.

Chad Knaus:
Fined $25,000
Suspended from all NASCAR events until March 22, 2006.
Placed on probation until Dec. 31, 2006.

Terry Labonte:
Loss of 25 driver-championship points

Philippe Lopez:
Fined $25,000

William Saunders
Loss of 25 owner-championship points


More.

[Dutton]

How severe/lax are these penalties compared to normal? What about the "severity" of the infractions? Are they seen as reasonably minor, or a big deal?

I suppose the second will be kinda answered by the response to the first, but not necessarily...

[macdaddy]

Dutton, this commentary gives a popular feeling to help answer your question.

[Dutton]

Thank you.