NASCAR Season May Start with Fines and Penalties

NASCAR fans - here we go! Sixty-one cars attempted to qualify for the 43 positions in next Sunday's Daytona 500, and if you think it's difficult to explain the infield fly rule, you should try explaining the qualifying process for this race. Bottom line, some cars are guaranteed to get in and other will have to race their way in. I'll give you the details in a bit.

The opening weekend of the 2007 season may see some tough penalties and fines handed out. You may remember that last season opened with Jimmie Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus, getting kicked out of the sport for four races due to "unapproved enhancements" to his team's car. Johnson won the 500 and went on to win the championship despite the rough start.

This year may look a lot like 2006, only with more fines and suspensions. During pre-qualifying inspection, Michael's Waltrip's NAPA Toyota was found to have a mysterious substance in the intake manifold. NASCAR siezed the part, and later the rest of the car, and will be going over both "with a fine toothed comb". If the substance in the manifold has anything to do with performance enhancement, I would expect that Waltrip will not be racing on Sunday and his crew chief may not be welcomed back to the track for several weeks. One report suggests the material could be Sterno, which would give a brief burst of extra horsepower as it dissipates - just enough for a little better qualifying run.

Since this is Toyota's first race in NEXTEL Cup, and Waltrip's team is the flagship for the brand, this could be pretty embarrassing.

Following qualifying two other cars ran into difficulties. Former champ Matt Kenseth and last year's phenom Kasey Kahne both had their qualifying times disallowed due to "unapproved enhancements" which were described as being as serious a violation as Chad Knaus' problems last year. No announcements yet on penalties, but if NASCAR is consistent, two more crew chiefs could have some time off.

I can understand, to some extent, why Waltrip's team would play a little fast and loose with the rules in an effort to get in the race. They have no points to fall back on and have to race their way in. Since all the cars are so closely matched in performance, even one or two horsepower could make the difference between racing on Sunday or watching it on TV. Given the money involved, racing is better.

It's a little harder to understand why Kenseth and Kahne's teams would try and get tricky. They're both guaranteed a starting spot in the race so what was the upside to making the alterations? Crew chiefs are known for exploiting any "gray areas" in the rules they can, but it sounds like they may have gone beyond even that. Pretty dumb. I'll post more info when NASCAR announces their decisions.

UPDATE: BIG FINES AND PENALTIES FOR SEVERAL TEAMS.

UPDATE 2: The other shoe drops on Michael Waltrip Racing.

For those who don't have a guaranteed spot in the race (and there are a bunch of them), Jayski did the hard work of figuring out the various scenerios under which each car could get in the race. Here goes:

How did the non Top-35 teams do in qualifying for the Daytona 500?
Top four are in the race, [61 entered for 43 spots]:
will make the race
#60-Boris Said, 185.212
#14-Sterling Marlin, 184.945
#70-Johnny Sauter, 184.850
#44-Dale Jarrett [CH1], 182.061

These drivers could make the race via speed if the above drivers made the race via the Duels:
#00-David Reutimann, 184.419
#36-Jeremy Mayfield, 184.351
#23-Mike Skinner, 184.324

This driver could make the race via a Champ Prov if Jarrett races his way in:
#37-Bill Elliott [CH2], 182.708

These drivers would need to make the race via the Duels:
#55-Michael Waltrip, 183.899
#39-Regan Smith, 183.865
#4-Ward Burton, 183.464
#15-Paul Menard, 183.426
#84-A.J. Allmendinger, 182.856
#34-Kevin Lepage, 182.711
#37-Bill Elliott [CH2], 182.708
#83-Brian Vickers, 182.508
#78-Kenny Wallace, 182.500
#13-Joe Nemechek, 182.474
#71-Frank Kimmel, 181.693
#49-Mike Bliss, 181.539
#04-Eric McClure, 181.269
#30-Stanton Barrett, 181.163
#27-Kirk Shelmerdine, 181.127
#72-Brandon Whitt,180.473
#74-Derrike Cope, 180.353
#58-Jame Hylton, 179.637
#09-Mike Wallace, 171.305

That whole thing makes my head hurt, but keep this list handy as you watch the Gatorade Duels on Thursday. The starting field will be constantly shifting, and some cars won't know if they made it until the checkered flag flies on the second race. Given that the 43rd and final starting spot still pays over $200,000, there will be a lot of emotion for those that barely make it, and those that barely miss it.

There's one other wildcard in the Duels - the risk of wrecking a team's primary car. Many of these teams have spent millions of dollars carefully preparing these cars for Daytona and making sure they're as aerodynamic as possible. Dings and dents don't help the airflow, and there's always a chance of a big wreck that could cause a team to go to their backup car. It could also throw some of the non-Top 35 cars right out of the race. Given the way the cars were dancing around Saturday night during the Bud Shootout, I don't think all 61 cars are going to back to the garage in the same shape they left it. It's going to be exciting.