NASCAR Taketh Away
April 24, 2008 by Tim Zaegel
Filed under Racing
Peyton Sellers won the season-opening Camping World East Series event this past weekend at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in Easley, SC for Andy Santerre Motorsports. Following the race, however, NASCAR officials found that the 16-year-old’s car was in possession of an illegal shock, and NASCAR in turn stripped him of his victory. This is the first time in recent memory that I believe NASCAR has stripped a driver in any series of a win for any rules infraction, but the team definitely feels like they’re being made an example of.
Santerre said to reporters, “Needless to say we are shocked and disappointed. We are being made an example … We admit there was a rules infraction, but it was a shock to us with as much as it was unintentional and unknown prior to post-race inspection.”
The team is obviously disappointed that they have been penalized with the loss of their race win on top of whatever other penalties NASCAR decides to hand to them, but to make matters worse, they deemed the car with a 30th place finish. The win was then awarded to Sellers’ teammate and original second-place finisher, Austin Dillon – grandson to Sprint Cup Series car owner, Richard Childress.
In Other News:
- Due to the Nationwide Series’ race in Talladega and the Craftsman Truck Series race in Kansas both being held on Saturday, Kyle Busch has conceded running the truck race this weekend. The series’ points leader will be replaced in the no. 51 Billy Ballew Motorsports truck by Shane Sieg. Shane has made 29 career starts in the truck series and has posted two top-ten finishes. One of those top-ten’s actually came behind the wheel of a Billy Ballew Motorsports truck last year at Loudon.
- Haas CNC Racing’s recent release of Jeremy Mayfield has left them scrambling for drivers week-to-week to fill the seat behind the wheel of their no. 70 Chevy Impala. The first week after firing Mayfield, they put Johnny Sauter in the car at Phoenix en route to a 37th place finish, and this weekend they’ll be hoping for better results with Ken Schrader at the helm. The team has recently locked on another driver for at least two of the season’s events with Max Papis scheduled to drive the car at both of the road course races in Watkins Glen and Infineon.
[Santerre said to reporters, “Needless to say we are shocked ] – I know that’s not a pun, but man, what a pun! Now it’s ’shockless’!
So a few note worthy events: Someone actually gets a win taken away.. and Richard Childress’ grandson is in the right place at the right time.. kind of like a fuel mileage or rained out race!
It’s nice to see a win taken away from a rules violation but I doubt we’d ever see this at the Cup level – it’s much easier tackling this on a local level, even if the news went national.
We can dream though, and remember, NASCAR once said [this is paraphrased from memory] they wouldn’t take the win away because they don’t want the fans to leave the track, get home, and see that someone else got awarded the victory they watched. (pfft is what I say.)
‘Nuff said.
Bruce, I’m inclined to agree with you on this issue. We will never see NASCAR take a win away at the Cup level for one certain reason – they’ll get hammered for it as soon as they don’t strip the win from the next guy that wins a race and fails post-race inspection.
I did find it ironic, though, that Austin Dillon just happened to be the beneficiary of NASCAR’s decision.
“It’s nice to see a win taken away from a rules violation but I doubt we’d ever see this at the Cup level”
Why would you think that?
There are precedents.
Ricky Rudd the flagged winner at Sears Point in 1991 Cup event but wasn’t officially credited with the win. On the next-to-last lap Rudd made contact with leader Davey Allison in turn 11, spinning Allison out. Allison recovered and finished four seconds behind Rudd.
Rudd was black-flagged for aggressive driving, given a 5 second time penalty and Allison was elevated to first and awarded the win.
In the Busch Series 1992 The Granger Select 200 at New River Valley Speedway Jeff Burton was the original winner of the race but was disqualified due to a non-approved part in the rear end.
And to shorten the story there are several more cases at both the Cup and NNS level where wins were taken away after the flag fell.
[ Why would you think that? ]
Because all too often, wins are not taken away Marc.
Marc, I think something that you’re leaving out here, though, is that was a MUCH different NASCAR than the one before us today. With all the national media attention that surrounds the sport these days, it often causes NASCAR to go about their business in a much different manner than they would have back in 1991.