Newman's Modified Win Taken Away

[24JGM]

Newman's race winning modified confiscated by NASCAR: UPDATE: The car Sprint Cup Series driver Ryan Newman drove to victory in Saturday's NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour F.W. Webb 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway was confiscated by NASCAR during post-race inspection. NASCAR spokesman Jason Christley said the car was confiscated to allow NASCAR to make further evaluations concerning restrictor plate and airflow issues with the motor on the car. Newman, who won the pole in qualifying for the event on Thursday, beat second place finisher Todd Szegedy to the checkered flag by 1.901 seconds on Saturday. "The action is not necessarily an indication of any impending penalty," Christley said. The car will be taken by NASCAR to their Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C. for further inspection.(Hartford Courant)(7-17-2011)
UPDATE: NASCAR announced the #7 team that competes in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour has been penalized as a result of rules violations committed Saturday, July 16 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H. The team was found to be in violation of Sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing); 12-4-I (car, car parts, components and/or equipment used do not conform to NASCAR rules); and 20D-5.9P (the intake manifold ports did not completely seal to the cylinder head ports. The use of metal shim-type intake manifold gaskets is not permitted) of the 2011 NASCAR rule book. The violations were discovered during post-race inspection on July 16. Mike LaRochelle, crew chief of car #7, has been suspended from all NASCAR regional touring series events until Dec. 31, 2011. Kevin Manion, owner of car #7, has been disqualified from the July 16 New Hampshire race, and has been suspended from all NASCAR regional touring series events until Dec. 31, 2011. Ryan Newman, driver of car #7, has been disqualified from the July 16 New Hampshire race.(NASCAR)(7-20-2011)

This is the first time that I know of that someone has been penalized at this magnitude in a long time.

From Jayski

 

[MattyO]

Can you link me to this story you copied and pasted? I can't seem to find it.

 

[DanAsher26]

Can you link me to this story you copied and pasted? I can't seem to find it.

It's on Jayski. First article on this page.

So who does this give the win to...?

 

[pennst24]

Todd Szegedy I believe.

 

[taz1458]

Unreal. Glad to see Nascar finally step up to the plate and DQ someone though.

 

[rotax8]

Unreal. Glad to see Nascar finally step up to the plate and DQ someone though.

Yeah, but I doubt we'll ever see it in any series higher than the mods.

 

[RP Motorsports]

I was pretty confident something like this was going to happen. As I mentioned in the Lenox 301 thread, if NASCAR chose to take a modified back to the R&D center, theres almost certainly something wrong with it. Glad Szegedy was given the win since he is more deserving of it.

It still pisses me off though. Like I said before, this is one of the biggest races for the WMT and it sucks to have Bono and Newman show up at the big races and steal the spotlight from these guys. Then on top of it, they flat out cheated. It wasnt just some insignificant unapproved part, they blatently cheated by shimming the intake manifold which provides much more airflow, especially at a track with restrictor plates.

It was still a great race but when you show up to watch the modified drivers as a huge modified fan, you cant help but kind of feel like you've been cheated in a way. I've lost a lot of respent for Bono and Newman after this (and I dont even want to hear about "maybe Newman didnt know"). At least now I wont have to watch those cheaters at the Izod and Sylvania 300 weekend races later this season. I'll finally get to see some modified racing at NHMS without them. Good riddance.

-Ryan

 

[Fisha695]

This is the first time that I know of that someone has been penalized at this magnitude in a long time.

Burt Myers & Peyton Sellers in 2008 are two that I can recall off-hand (not counting Whelen All-American series where people get stripped of wins weekly across the country lol)

It happens often in the Regional series if there is a big violation, but the last time it happened in one of the National series as far as I can recall was the 1995 NNS race at Michigan where DJ was DQ'd and Mark Martin was awarded the win.

(and I dont even want to hear about "maybe Newman didnt know")

There is no way Newman didn't know. The team sat out final practice so they wouldn't melt the wax out & there is no way that somebody as smart as Newman claims to be wouldn't notice the extra power/response when the wax melted and the engine was pulling more air.

 

[ckgordon24]

I'm very glad somthing was done about this. Like you guys said. This is their Daytona 500 and to have someone steal the show is not fair. It is like the Nationwide series. How can young talent be seen with the big boys taking the series over. I just wonder if the car was legal. Could one of the modifed boys have beat Newman.

 

[RP Motorsports]

There is no way Newman didn't know. The team sat out final practice so they wouldn't melt the wax out & there is no way that somebody as smart as Newman claims to be wouldn't notice the extra power/response when the wax melted and the engine was pulling more air.

Yea I heard they also had an illegal manifold gasket. Supposedly it was an 1/8 inch thicker and had several spots all the way around that were slightly taken down.

Newman definitely would've known just by the feel of it, but I believe he knew ahead of time as well. There were alot of people that knew what was going on not just from Bono's team but also from ECR.

I just wonder if the car was legal. Could one of the modifed boys have beat Newman.

I say absolutely. What Bono's team did was pretty significant. Aside from that though, Newman's car really wasnt as dominate as most articles are making it sound like. Ronnie Silk had the best car in clean air and Todd Szegedy had the best all around car. There was a couple times when Newman fell back to third and was losing ground. After Silk took the lead and led some laps he came up on a bunch of lap traffic and his car just wasnt as good in the traffic which allowed Szegedy to catch and pass him and Newman make up some ground. With somewhere around 20-25 to go it was like Newman put on an afterburner and just took off to the front and that was it. Szegedy wasnt far behind but his car was just a little too loose and used up at the end.

Without the advantage I definitely dont think Newman wouldve won this race. I think he mightve finished third at best, but maybe not even.

I'm not even ruling out the possibility that he was playing possum a little. This race went green from lap 12 until the end. That is very rare for this race. When it came down towards the end, these cars were absolutely used up (no pit stops). Everyone's lap times had dropped off and the handles and grip were all but gone, yet all of a sudden Newman looks like he's on fresh tires with 30 more horse.

The whole thing seemed a little strange to me even before it was known that the car had been confiscated.


Found this article with a few good quotes from Bono. Ryan Newman stripped of Modified win for illegal intake manifold | NASCAR News Now - SceneDaily.com

I wish someone would actually just man-up and say "Yea, we tried to cheat and got caught, end of story". They look even more ridiculous playing the whole 'I dont know what happened we would never try to cheat' game. Unbelievable. I wouldnt be surprised if those guys were cheating every time they came to this race.

-Ryan

 

[ckgordon24]

Your right RP Motorsports. Would have loved to see one of them beat him straight up. I wish they would brodcast more modifed races on tv. I love watching those things. Hell their Bristol is most of the time more exciting than when cup goes there.

 

[Orlando Hunter]

From my point of view I dont see why there was a need to break the rules and such. He is a Cup driver and I'm sure he could of won without the extra illegal parts and whatever...

 

[Mo Neenja31]

From my point of view I dont see why there was a need to break the rules and such. He is a Cup driver and I'm sure he could of won without the extra illegal parts and whatever...

That's what I was thinking!

 

[dalejrgamer]

From my point of view I dont see why there was a need to break the rules and such. He is a Cup driver and I'm sure he could of won without the extra illegal parts and whatever...

So he can cheat without getting caught at the Cup level. Duh.

 

[4WideRacing]

So he can cheat without getting caught at the Cup level. Duh.

No, but when you are racing against way lower series drivers you should not have to cheat in order to win. Why even take the risk?

 

[NossedEvo]

Easy to call a man a cheater, when there are no repercussions. Ryan Newman has always carried himself like a man -- can't say the same for some keyboard Rambo's I've endured.

Not a RN fan.

Not a web 'hater' either.

One question: where does it get you to slag other folks behind the safety of your keyboard?


Just sayin...

 

[Fisha695]

Easy to call a man a cheater

When he is found guilty of cheating yes, yes it is.

"Just sayin..."

 

[NossedEvo]

I haven't heard he was found guilty of anything. I think he was penalized for driving a race car that didn't conform. I once drove a car home from a performance tune that had no water in the rad. I assumed it did.

I've wasted enough time. Rant away kids. I'll waste no more time.

 

[Fisha695]

I haven't heard he was found guilty of anything. I think he was penalized for driving a race car that didn't conform. I once drove a car home from a performance tune that had no water in the rad. I assumed it did.

I've wasted enough time. Rant away kids. I'll waste no more time.

Maybe they do things different up in the hinterland where you are but I know for a fact here when you sign your name on the sign-in sheet for a Whelen Modified race (Crew Members, Drivers, Owners, Sponsor Reps, etc all need to sign in each day with NASCAR and put the car number they're associated with) you are legally agreeing that the car you signed in with is legal & that you acknowledge that if anything to do with that team that weekend is found illegal you can be held responsible for it.

Like they say Ignorance is no excuse, when Ryan signed his name on the line he agreed to be held responsible for any & all actions of the team. If NASCAR thought he was not cheating them he would still be credited with the win & all points/monies that go with it.

 

[rotax8]

From my point of view I dont see why there was a need to break the rules and such. He is a Cup driver and I'm sure he could of won without the extra illegal parts and whatever...

No, but when you are racing against way lower series drivers you should not have to cheat in order to win. Why even take the risk?

I think they did it just to see if they could. These guys grew up at Saturday night short tracks and every weekly racer I know gets a kick out of pushing the rules and seeing what they can get away with. They had nothing to lose on the race and wanted to try something just to see if they could.