Jimmie Johnson penalized

[dalejrgamer]

Knaus is suspended for 6 races...

which means...

Spoiler

Jimmie Johnson will win the 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 Cup Championships, so joke's on us

 

[David24]

Honestly I kinda felt bad for Johnson after the lap 2 wreck...and everyone else that was in it.

This will not affect his season at all IMO. When fall comes around he'll win a race then everybody will complain that it's too easy for him and that they will quit watching Nascar. Happens every year. And the sad part is I'm not joking.

 

[MattSRD28]

What I don't understand is why NASCAR is banning crew chiefs and car chiefs before the car even hits the track. Isn't that what inspection's for? To let teams change what they have to to make the car legal before it hits the track?

If it fails post-race inspection, sure, ban Chad and company, but for failing pre-PRACTICE inspection? C'mon man!

There's a reason why Nascar usually waits until the Tuesday after the race to hand out penalities/suspensions. They always take into account the nature of the violation - something we'll never know - into their consideration when determining consequences. If Knaus was immediately suspended before practice, that'd be a different story. Knaus is suspended for the next 6 races, same as if the car did fail post-race inspection. Sounds appropriate to me.

 

[Cheeze]

I guess I just don't agree with suspending a person for parts that never hit the track.

 

[K.Chuck]

What I don't understand is why NASCAR is banning crew chiefs and car chiefs before the car even hits the track. Isn't that what inspection's for? To let teams change what they have to to make the car legal before it hits the track?

If it fails post-race inspection, sure, ban Chad and company, but for failing pre-PRACTICE inspection? C'mon man!

Well before the car was brought to Daytona "the car went to NASCAR's Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C., for inspection and was returned without any notification of being outside the lines."(jayski) So to find something at the track dosnt look good. This was not a minor fix ether there was a lot of work involved to get the c post off and correct ones on to fit the template. I dont think it should be called cheating in any light though, your given an area to work with they just pushed it to far. The car might have raced four races before but bottom line it didnt fit the templates at Daytona and every other car did.

 

[Mike24]

Honestly, I don't think the punishment fit the crime.

This violation was before the car even hit the track for any competition oriented events. It was notified, and they fixed it, and it passed every single other inspection process. That's why they have inspection, to inspect and alert teams if things need to be fixed.

A 25 point fine and a 6 race suspension for something that was found pre-everything? A bit outrageous in my mind...its akin to a 100 point fine on the old system.

 

[4WideRacing]

It could be that Nascar had inside information about it since they did have this car at their R&D center.......

 

[starscream24]

Honestly, I don't think the punishment fit the crime.

This violation was before the car even hit the track for any competition oriented events. It was notified, and they fixed it, and it passed every single other inspection process. That's why they have inspection, to inspect and alert teams if things need to be fixed.

A 25 point fine and a 6 race suspension for something that was found pre-everything? A bit outrageous in my mind...its akin to a 100 point fine on the old system.

It wouldn't be as strong as it is if it wasn't for Chad being the one cheating. He's done this before countless of times and Nascar was finally sick of it. You could push it so far. Hopefully this will teach Cheatin' Chad a lesson. By the way. It doesn't help that it was also the fall 'Dega car.

 

[K.Chuck]

Its more that it fit at the R&D center at not at the track. Its also setting the tone of dont push NASCAR at inspection this season, which is good. They want good racing on the track for the fans.

 

[Sgt Slaughter]

Eh, either way whats done is done.

 

[BillyJack79]

I'm gonna try to tiptoe around any Knaus hater-ism and just say this.... His history of working outside the template had to contribute to the severity of the penalties. Granted, it's his job to put the absolute best car on the track, and if there's any "gray area" he should be seeing what he can do with it. On the other hand, NASCAR's gotta be looking at him like, "How many times is this guy gonna wipe his butt with our rulebook, show up with cars that fail inspection and expect us to take it???" Any other crew chief/team would've gotten by with less drastic punishment.

 

[4WideRacing]

Eh, either way whats done is done.

It's not completely over since Hendrick is appealing it.




Another reason it might have been such harsh penalties could be that it was so out of tolerance that it wasn't able to be fixed.

 

[MattSRD28]

I guess I just don't agree with suspending a person for parts that never hit the track.

Well, there's a few things that need to be kept in mind.

1) We don't have anywhere close to all the information about the violation. Nascar could have found out more than we'll ever know about.

2) Knaus does have something of a rap sheet. Nascar has always handed out harsher penalities to repeat offenders. Knaus earned the rap sheet after Nascar warned teams from the beginning with the COT to NOT mess with it.

3) If suspensions/penalities can't be handed out for pre-race inspection, where's the incentive to show up for pre-race inspection with a car that will pass? Seems to me like if teams know that they can't be penalized for pre-race inspection violations, they'll only try to bend the rules even more knowing that it's entirely on Nascar to catch them & then they can't be penalized when they're caught.

Pre-race inspection has always been taken much more seriously than post-race inspection. Post-race inspection has to take into account what happened to car during the race weekend. Pre-race is displaying to Nascar basically how the car came to the race from the shop. It's much, much easier to discern intent to be in violation of the templates during pre-race than post-race.

 

[BillyJack79]

It doesn't help that it was also the fall 'Dega car.

Same car Knaus was caught telling JJ to back into the wall if he won last fall???

(n)

 

[Mike24]

It's not completely over since Hendrick is appealing it.

Yeah...it's completely over. Guess who is on the appeal board, people in line with NASCAR.

I don't think they've ever overturned a penalty.

 

[Cheeze]

3) If suspensions/penalities can't be handed out for pre-race inspection, where's the incentive to show up for pre-race inspection with a car that will pass? Seems to me like if teams know that they can't be penalized for pre-race inspection violations, they'll only try to bend the rules even more knowing that it's entirely on Nascar to catch them & then they can't be penalized when they're caught.

The incentive is to have practice time. If I was NASCAR I would say "Fine. Show up with an illegal car. It's YOUR practice time and money you're wasting, not ours." you know? If they show up with a legal car they will get all available time to practice and gain information to make they're car better. If not, they can sit in the garage and spend money/time to make it legal.

Just my opinion.

 

[4WideRacing]

Yeah...it's completely over. Guess who is on the appeal board, people in line with NASCAR.

I don't think they've ever overturned a penalty.

I don't know if they have ever overturned a penalty but they have lessened them before, Robby Gordon 2008 Daytona as an example.

 

[canadienhits]

Being the board's 48 fan some points here:

First off, cheating in NASCAR (or the more PC term "pushing the envelope") has been around since the beginning of NASCAR. Read DW's book, they used about a million tricks. Now Chad got caught, and NASCAR said they would come down hard on "modifications" to either the chassis or body of the new car. As a 48 fan, I can take the 25 points and Chad sitting for six weeks (and I'm sure Chad wasn't alone in this), because he "pushes the envelope" to get championships. And for y'all who think your favorite driver/team wouldn't do it..if they could without getting caught, IN A HEARTBEAT they would.

 

[WinstonCup426]

Maybe I'm biased but I don't see why Jeff Gordon would need to get driver points taken away for this if he had nothing to do with the illegal posts. Owner points I totally get, but...really?

 

[Punisher88]

The cheater got caught

In my opinion Chad Knaus probably knew about them car the minute is was rolled onto the truck and sent to daytona. I am happy that the NASCAR officials caught him before he could actually run the car in the race. One can only winder what would have happened if he would have won the race and then it was found in the post race inspection.