Crazy Woman Driver
By Kay Bell
NASCAR's
war on crew cheifs
Two premier teams have been hit with extreme penalties for car violations. Is
NASCAR being too tough as crew chiefs adjust to the new Generation-6 vehicle?
Pictured here is Matt Kenseth with his crew chief, Jason Ratliff.
Photo credit: Alex Trautwig/Getty Images
The second half of the Sprint Cup
season is upon us. What have we
learned so far?
CHANGING LANES
Well, one thing for sure: Break
NASCAR's rules and you shall be
smacked down like you have never
been smacked before.
because NASCAR found fault with
some bolts in the rear suspensions.
Keselowski crew chief Paul Wolfe
and Logano crew chief Todd Gordon
were suspended for six races and
fined $100,000 each, and the drivers
each lost 25 championship points.
I'm talking, of course, about the war
NASCAR has declared on its crew
chiefs.
As bad as that seemed – and it
was one of the biggest penalties
NASCAR has ever imposed – it paled
in comparison to what came next.
The
when
Joey
Cup
failed
After Matt Kenseth won at Kansas,
inspectors discovered that a part
in his engine weighed 2.7 grams
less than it should. To put this in
perspective, that's about the weight
hostilities began in April,
the Penske Racing Fords of
Logano and reigning Sprint
champion Brad Keselowski
post-race inspection in Texas
10
0713 crazy woman driver cl.indd 1
JULY 2013 // WWW.CHANGINGLANESDIGITAL.COM
6/4/13 3:30 PM