JGR Penalties Announced

Just in case you've been out of the loop this past weekend, Nascar found the three Joe Gibbs Racing cup teams to have unapproved oil pans on their Camrys at Michigan last Friday. As you might expect, there had also been a lot of speculation prognostication about what penalties the organization might receive for this infraction.

That all ended Tuesday when the sanctioning body announced that the teams crew chiefs, Mike Ford (No. 11), Dave Rogers (No.18) and Greg Zippadelli (No. 20) had each been fined $50,000 and placed on probation until December 31st. In addition, the teams car chiefs and senior vice president of racing operations each received a year of probation.

This is just not a sufficient penalty. They really needed to deduct points from these teams. While JGR still adamantly denies that they were trying to gain an advantage, the facts are the facts. These oil pans weighed between twenty five and thirty pounds apiece. They also laid extremely close to the underside of the engine. At a 2 mile oval like Michigan International Speedway, what other explanation could there be for an infraction like this than to gain an aerodynamic advantage over the competition?

This isn't the first time that the team owned by the former Washington Redskins coach has had a run in with rules violations. A Busch Series race at Michigan where magnets were used to prevent the throttles in both their cars from running wide open comes to mind. They just play stupid and hide behind their Bibles. For a team that displays such religious, moral values and has a play-by-the-rules mentality, its quite surprising that they try and bend those same rules as much as possible.Instead of just looking at the pans as "unapproved", Nascar really should have asked more questions and thought about what the team had to gain. They definitely botched this call.