With the penalties given to J.G.R. and the 20 team is it time for a change?

Question

That engine was not built by J.G.R. and no team tears an engine down for inspection before putting it in their car. Now, through no fault of their own, J.G.R. and the 20 team are in a very deep hole.

In the early days of NASCAR, each team built there own cars from the ground up including the engines. When that was the case, the methods used for handing out penalties were fine. These days though, there are basically 4 engine builders in NASCAR that supply the majority of the teams. Hendrick and Earnhardt/Childress do the Chevrolets, Roush/Yates does the Fords and T.R.D. does Toyotas.

The rotating assemblies, no matter what the manufacturer is, all need to be precision balanced to much tighter tolerances then any street car engine will ever be so that they'll last through the end of the race, so, there's no way that SOMEBODY didn't know that that rod was light.

I feel that there NASCAR needs a way to penalize the engine builder, not the race teams in situations like this. Does anyone agree?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

I understand what your saying,but how would you penalize TRD? I think you would be making it easier for teams to cheat. Anytime they got caught with an illegal part they would blame it on whoever they got the bad part from. Kinda like the deal they had with springs. I think the responsibility should fall on the crew chief.

Anonymous · Answer

Nobody is forcing the teams to use engine suppliers -- being as there was the day (rather recently) in which teams did their own engine building, so no more than Richard Petty could have gotten away with "supposedly" not knowing the engine he used to win his 200th (or 199th, I forget) was illegal when he got busted for having a 400ci engine in the car (after the rule had been changed years earlier to 358ci) and had an out because his brother built the engine, it's not an excuse for the #20 car team or JGR to suggest "they didn't know" either.

Tolerating the excuse, "it's the engine builder's fault," and not penalizing the driver or the team, would just open things up to rampant attempts at cheating. 
And how can you hurt, or penalize, the engine builder - by making them sit in the corner? NASCAR has no means to penalize them.

Ultimately it's still the responsibility of the team (driver, crew chief, car owner, etc.) to know all the parts in the car - including the engine - meets all the requirements of the NASCAR rulebook.

Anonymous · Answer

I think that NASCAR needs to stop with the favoritism and keep the penalty the same for everyone. Certain teams... cough cough rick hendrick cough cough... get away with a lot of what others get penalized for.

Chicken George · Answer

When they get tired of the Toyota communism the teams will switch to a different manufacturer.

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With the penalties given to J.G.R. and the 20 team is it time for a change?

4 Answers