Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
O.K., as most of you know I’m not the biggest fan of Robby Gordon’s, but even I think the penalty he got for an unapproved nose on his car is way too steep.
Robby switched from Ford to Dodge just before the Daytona 500. He showed up for opening day inspections on Feb. 8 with a nose on his car that was still “under consideration” by NASCAR’s governing body and had yet to be approved for competition.
This unapproved part never even made it on to the track and into competition, yet NASCAR still penalized Robby with 100 driver and owner points while crew chief Frank Kerr was fined $100,000, suspended for the next six Sprint Cup Series races and placed on probation until Dec. 31, 2008.
This isn’t like he added a ‘jet fuel-like’ substance to his fuel like Michael Waltrip did last year. Michael received a similar point penalty for his infraction. NASCAR didn’t even fine Kurt Busch who deliberately drove his car repeatedly in to Stewart’s car while both were coming off the track into the garage area during final practice for the Bud Shootout.
Robby mistakenly puts a part on his car and doesn’t even make out on to the track and Kurt uses his car as a weapon while on the track and Robby gets fined? I don’t get it. It isn’t like Robby was using the unapproved part in an obscure area of the car like Jeff Gordon’s unapproved wheel bearing from a few years ago. It was the nose of the car, how obvious can you get? How can he hide it? It has to go through the templates after all.
I just don’t get it. Maybe it is Robby’s slightly ‘tainted’ history with NASCAR, we all know Kurt is an angel in that department … right?
Photo Credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR
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