So owning a NASCAR team you need some coin? - PBX Info :: Your Free PBX, PABX and Telephone Information Resource

***John_In_Dakota*** · 05-15-2007, 05:05 PM

Team loses 100 points, $100K; Eury suspended

The fallout for Saturday's failed inspection of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s car prior to the Dodge Avenger 500 has come, and it's steep.

NASCAR laid down a sizeable punishment of 100 points in the standings, $100,000 and a six-week suspension for crew chief Tony Eury Jr. for having the wing on the back of the car mounted improperly on the No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet during pre-race inspection at Darlington.

"We don't have a problem with the ruling because it's clearly stated in the rulebook," said DEI VP of competition Richie Gilmore. "But we have a problem with the severity of the penalty."

Gilmore said the team will appeal the penalty to NASCAR on Monday.

After a little research, Eury said he discovered that the unapproved brackets were previously used during a wind-tunnel test and had not been replaced before the car came to the track. Eury said with the wing lowered to 18-degrees, the car's downforce was 20 counts less than had it been mounted to specifications.

"They did us a favor by putting on the other brackets," said Eury, who mailed the wind-tunnel report to Nextel Cup Series director John Darby. "But I understand I don't have the blue-printed bracket on the car. I made an honest mistake and accept whatever (NASCAR) decides.

"My boys will kick their (butts) one way or the other."

Eury is taking a brand new car to Lowe's Motor Speedway for the Nextel All-Star Challenge that "looks like a Late Model built to last 80 laps and get out" without all the bells and whistles or even air conditioning. The team will return for the Coca-Cola 600 with chassis 39, a favorite of Earnhardt's.

Earnhardt jumped into the top 12 with an eighth-place finish at Darlington, but the 100-point deduction slides him down to 14th in the standings. The top 12 at the end of 26 races qualify for the Chase.

In the classic tradition of covering your buddy's back, Earnhardt has offered to pay the fine for his cousin Eury if necessary.

"Yeah, but I might have to borrow his plane so I can go to Maui for two weeks," Eury chuckled.

** So you probably need a good bank roll to own a team? What can one of those cars that only turns left cost any way? Oh wait you may need two in case one crashes. Crap, then you will need two of eveything. OK I'm really asking what does it cost to own one of these cars? The article sounds like the guy has no problem with paying the coin for the fine. **

***Archibald J. Cox*** · 05-16-2007, 09:00 AM

I need a CliffsNotes version.

***JulianW*** · 05-16-2007, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John_In_Dakota

Team loses 100 points, $100K; Eury suspended.

That better for you Arch?

Java_Bob · 05-16-2007, 09:41 AM

Budweiser will pay it for him

***JulianW*** · 05-16-2007, 09:59 AM

Using this as a guide I don't think they're really going to worry about $100,000.

***Archibald J. Cox*** · 05-16-2007, 11:19 AM

Got it, thanks.

slagburn · 05-20-2007, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JulianW

Using this as a guide I don't think they're really going to worry about $100,000.

I was told once that Home Depot shells out something on the order of 15 mil a year just to have their name and logo on the haulers of Tony Stewart's team; of course with 7 post shakers costing over 3mil and all that wind tunnel time per season a team can burn through millions pretty quick.

I read somewhere recently that the Bud shells out about 25mil for the sponsorship on that team.

Here is the top 5 biggest cheaters in NASCAR per FOX sports.

Quote:

5. Robin Pemberton
A crew chief from 1985 through 2001, Pemberton makes the list for no reason other than the fact that he holds the distinction of being the most monetarily penalized single mechanic in NASCAR history. On the list of NASCAR's top ten biggest fines, Pemberton shows up three different times for a total of $85,000.

The biggest of those penalties came in 1990, when a carburetor spacer plate was found in Mark Martin's car following a win at Richmond in late February. The dime part cost Pemberton 40 large. The team was also docked 46 points, which hurt more than a little when Martin ended up losing the championship to Dale Earnhardt by only 26 points in November.

What's Pemberton up to now? He's on the NASCAR payroll as VP of Competition. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right?

4. Ray Evernham
Evernham has only been busted big-time once — officially. During his first title run as Jeff Gordon's crew chief in 1995, Ray was fined $60,000 for using "illegal suspension" parts in the 24 car at Charlotte.

There was another time, however, that happened so fast and so quietly that it got very little attention at the time. Evernham and Gordon won The Winston all-star race in 1997 with a car that was so radical in its chassis design and construction that the team was told to tear it apart and never bring anything like it back to the track ever.

So, what was so radical about it?

Evernham looks confused at the question. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Yeah, right.

Evernham's legacy of experimentation is still alive and well at Hendrick Motorsports, despite the fact that he left the team seven years ago. Chad Knaus and Alan Gustafson are making sure of that. Meanwhile, having all three crew chiefs sent home from Daytona this year is one of the most delicious tales in cheating history. But even that triple play wasn't enough to crack our triumverate of tricksters.

3. Gary Nelson
When Nelson hung up his crew chief clipboard to become NASCAR's top rules enforcer in the mid-1990's, his former competitors were up in arms.

"It's like letting one of the inmates run the asylum," said Darrell Waltrip at the time.

Nelson had made his name as an "innovator" with DiGard Racing and Bobby Allison in the early 1980's and later on the payroll of Hendrick Motorsports, working with Geoff Bodine and DW himself. Nelson was a master of the gray area. During Allison's 1983 title run, NASCAR was so sure that Nelson was hiding extra fuel somewhere in Allison's car it was torn apart twice during the season. Nothing was found.

Nelson is also given credit for one of the most infamous inventions in NASCAR history — a device that emptied lead buckshot hidden inside the roll cage when the driver pulled a lever inside the cockpit, thus lightening the weight of a car during a race. It is a story that has become legendary, even outside of the garage.

During an online chat session a couple of years ago, the validity of the "bombs away" story was asked by a fan to Nelson himself. His response? "My memory is becoming fuzzy on that. Next question."

2. Junior Johnson
What else do you expect from a man who got his start outrunning "revenuers" on the backroads of North Carolina? Johnson won 50 Cup races as a driver and 140 as a car owner. From 1953 to 1995, Johnson and NASCAR stood nose-to-nose waiting on the other to blink first.

Big gas cans, using lighter weight metals during engine construction, cars that pushed the outer limits of legal aerodynamics... they all originated in Wilkes County, North Carolina in Johnson's shop. Leaning on knowledge gained from hauling moonshine through the mountains, his cars always seemed to have a few more horses under the hood than the competition.

In 1966, he showed up at Atlanta with a car that was supposed to be a Ford, but looked like nothing that had ever come out of Detroit. Nicknamed "The Banana" because of its Holly Farms yellow paint scheme, it amazingly still fit into NASCAR's templates. The Banana ran one race before NASCAR told Johnson to never bring it back again.

Twenty-five years later, Johnson and crew chief Mike Beam were suspended for 12 weeks for using an illegal carburetor in Tommy Ellis's car at Charlotte (it was reduced to four weeks after an appeal). And in 1995, Johnson went out in style with a $45,000 fine for using an illegal intake manifold in Brett Bodine's car at Daytona.

You know, Jeff Hammond always says that everything he learned about racing came from Junior. Hmmmmm.

1. Smokey Yunick
The only thing that Yunick did better than bend the rules was use cuss words. A high school dropout, the Daytona Beach resident possessed one of the most brilliant automotive minds of the 20th century, and never hesitated from using it to his advantage on Sunday afternoons.

In his three-volume autobiography published shortly after his death in 2001, he even addressed what he believed was cheating and what was not. In the volume dedicated to NASCAR, entitled "All Right You Sons-a-Bitches, Let's Have a Race", he estimates that by 1970 over half of the NASCAR rulebook was dedicated solely to him. He is also quick to point this out as one of the great accomplishments of his life.

Operating in the gray areas of the rulebook, Yunick says, is not cheating. However, there are four things that he considers "real cheating": 1. Using a big engine. 2. Using a big gas tank. 3. Using expensive exotic materials to save weight. 4. Very expensive aerodynamic rule violations.

"Now, three and four," he wrote. "I consider more 'chicken s---' than cheating... Big engines and big gas tanks, I have no mental tolerance for. What brains does that take?"

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes	Rate This Thread
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode	Rate This Thread:

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
No more team sports (for a couple of weeks)	JulianW	Off Topic - Humor/Jokes	0	03-30-2007 12:00 PM
U.S. Mint launches first presidential $1 coin - Poll Do we need another coin?	rixride	Off Topic - Humor/Jokes	18	02-19-2007 05:03 AM
US aims to relaunch dollar coin	JulianW	Off Topic - Humor/Jokes	12	11-22-2006 06:50 AM
Looking for an install team in Tampa	LearninDaily	Meridian Systems	5	09-08-2006 03:45 PM
Another Poll from the CS1000 Product Team	Fletch	Nortel Feedback	2	09-08-2005 01:06 AM

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)