Monthly Archives: March 2012

To Every NASCAR Hauler Driver named & unnamed here! Fans Appreciate Your consistent performance  throughout the  season

This week, teams will for the third time of the early 2012 season travel across country to Fontana, CA for more racing action. 


Our highest praise goes to all teams, for their herculean efforts within the first month of the season. 


Special tribute is served here to the NASCAR Hauler Drivers making the cross-country journey round-trip, three times this month – Phoenix, Las Vegas and Fontana. 


By approximate calculations, and including their drive to and from Fontana, these drivers will have spent 231 hours and 16 minutes in their haulers driving from point to point covering 14,493 miles. This does not include the time at the track away from their loved ones – nor does it include time for their pit stops throughout their journey. These numbers merely represent the first five races of the season. There are at least 31 more road trips and three of those trips will once again take them across the country. 


So when you’re at the track this season, on facebook, or twitter, please take some time to seek out the hauler driver for your favorite team and show them your gratitude for getting your favorite drivers’ car to the track on-time and ready to roll for each and every race this season. From our heart to yours, we give our sincere gratitude to you – The NASCAR Hauler Drivers!  


Also, in honoring NASCAR Hauler Drivers this week, here’s a link to a NASCAR.com article from Feb 29, 2012, detailing behind the scenes activities.


This morning on twitter, one of our guest bloggers, Glenn Locke provided a virtual NASCAR Hauler Parade of photos he took from California at Thursday evening’s Hauler Parade from Ontario to Fontana for fans. For those who missed it or just want to take another look, his tweets and photos follow below in no particular order.  Not all names are included, because info could not be found. If you know information, please provide details in the comments below. We apologize to those drivers we have missed. Special Thanks to Jayski’s Pit Crew Team Chart providing many names. 


These are a couple Hauler Drivers, we know of, but not listed below, Jeff Miles #21-Bayne Roush Fenway Racing; Dave Davis #51-KuBusch Phoenix Racing; 

Drivers – (Please add comment below if you know info)  #74- Reed Sorenson Turn One Racing

Drivers –    (Please add comment below if you know info)  #1-McMurray Earnhardt Ganassi Racing

Drivers –    (Please add comment below if you know info)  #23-Scott Riggs R3 Motorsports

Drivers – John Slingerlend, Greg Fulp, Dennis LaCroix & Chuck Lemay #78-Smith Furniture Row Racing

Drivers –    (Please add comment below if you know info)  #83-Cassill BK Racing

Drivers – # – Ford  (Please add comment below if you know info)

Drivers – Thomas “Thumper” McCrimmon & Scott “Scooter” Crowell #20-Logano Joe Gibbs Racing

Drivers –    (Please add comment below if you know info)   #- Federated Auto Parts

Drivers –    (Please add comment below if you know info)  #87-Nemechek Nemco Racing

Drivers – Jimmy Parrott & Dave Radney #5-Kahne Hendrick Motor Sports

Drivers – #- (Please add comment below if you know info)

Drivers –    (Please add comment below if you know info)  #42-Montoya Earnhardt Ganassi Racing

Drivers –    (Please add comment below if you know info)  #37-Hill

Drivers –    (Please add comment below if you know info)  #33-Gaughan Richard Childress Racing

Drivers –  (Please add comment below if you know info)   #7-RGordon Robby Gordon Motorsports

Drivers –  (Please add comment below if you know info)  #9-Ambrose Richard Petty Motorsports

Drivers –  (Please add comment below if you know info)  #30-David Stremme Inception Motorsports

Drivers – Stump Lewis & Cindy Lewis #56-Truex Jr. Michael Waltrip Racing

Drivers –    (Please add comment below if you know info)  #38-Gilliland Front Row Motorsports

Drivers – Jeff Icenhour & Rocky Boggs #27-Menard Richard Childress Racing

Drivers – Glenn Shano #55-Martin Michael Waltrip Racing

Drivers – Dwayne Zirkle & Bennie Stevens #16-Biffle Roush Fenway Racing

Drivers –  (Please add comment below if you know info)   #36-Blaney Tommy Baldwin Racing

Drivers –  (Please add comment below if you know info)  #43-Almirola Richard Petty Motorsports

Drivers –  (Please add comment below if you know info)  #13-Mears

Drivers –  (Please add comment below if you know info)  #93-Kvapil BK Racing

Drivers –  (Please add comment below if you know info)  #34-Ragan Front Row Motorsports

Drivers – Jeff Craven & Jim Pollard #31-Burton Richard Childress Racing

Drivers – # – (Please add comment below if you know info)

Drivers – Jamie Price & Bob Hannigan #18-KyBusch Joe Gibbs Racing

Driver – Dale Lackey #47-Labonte JTG Daughtery Racing

Driver – Greg Sorber #22-Allmendinger Penske Racing

Drivers –  (Please add comment below if you know info)  #15-Bowyer Michael Waltrip Racing

Drivers – Rick Hodges & Todd Cable #39-Newman Stewart-Haas Racing

Drivers – Rick Johnson & Dan Collins #2-Keselowski Penske Racing

Drivers – Kyle Bazzell & Chad Kohn #48-Johnson Hendrick Motor Sports

Drivers – Scott Denton & Andy Taylor #88-Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motor Sports

Drivers –  (Please add comment below if you know info)  #17-Kenseth Roush Fenway Racing

Drivers –  (Please add comment below if you know info)  #24-Gordon Hendrick Motor Sports

Drivers – Dennis Gammons & Mark Williams #29-Harvick Richard Childress Racing

Drivers – Jerry Honeycutt & Ken “Goldberg” Gober #14-Stewart Stewart-Haas Racing

Drivers – Noah Hein & Steve Mitchell         #99-Edwards Roush Fenway Racing

Drivers – Jerry Hess & Frank Hodel #11-Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Many Thanks to All NASCAR Hauler Drivers! NASCAR Fans leave your Thank You  to your favorite drivers’ Hauler Driver  via the comments section below!

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Rick Hendrick held his cards close to his vest throughout the Appeal process

There are a lot of smiles at the Hendrick organization and from the fans of the 48 Team. Hendrick and Knaus have played their cards perfectly within the appeal process and apparently within the NASCAR organization. 


The wild card mentioned in yesterday’s blog , did indeed surprise many on Tuesday, March 20th when National Stock Car Racing Chief Appellate Officer, John Middlebrook, reduced the Daytona penalties after presentations from the Hendrick organization and NASCAR. 


Gone are the 25 point penalties to driver, Jimmie Johnson and owner, Jeff Gordon. Johnson who was 17th in the point standings is now 11th, only 36 points away from the points leader Greg Biffle. 


Gone are the six-week suspensions for crew chief Chad Knaus and car chief Ron Malec.  Although both will remain on NASCAR probation until May 9, 2012.


Equally surprising, however, the $100,000 fine for Chad Knaus remains. 


The fine to Chad Knaus creates many questions following the unexpected decision by Middlebrook.  However, the questions leave no answers because Middlebrook has not yet provided an explanation for his decision. So many are left with piecing together the comments from both sides. 


Yesterday’s blog mentions the Ace up Hendrick’s sleeve being their knowledge of Middlebrook’s record of appeals since taking his position in 2010. In all of the appeals he’s heard, his decisions have reduced the penalties with only one involving a points penalty which he did not reduce. Yesterday’s blog also acknowledges there may be some unknowns that could put a wild card into play on the final day of this particular appeal. 


Rick Hendrick said his company brought with them “about 20 photos” and “10-15 pages” of detailed documentation used in their presentation to the Chief Appellate Officer. Included in their documentation were three affidavits which are key to the Hendrick defense and reveals some contradiction within the officials network of NASCAR.  


Hendrick says one of those affidavits gives permission for them to work within the gray area of the template used by NASCAR in their inspection process. The gray area in this case is the surface of the car that does not touch the template.  


This particular affidavit directly contradicts previous statements from series director John Darby. Last month, Darby said that teams know they can’t mess with the areas outside of the templates. “Since the inception of the new car, the templates are a guide that we use in the field. The difference between this car and the old car, all of the teams have been given (rules for) the entire surface of the car. In the old days, teams used to work in between the templates and that all stopped in 2007 and that’s ultimately where the violation of this one lies.”


The most obvious question with this new information – which official signed that affidavit telling Chad Knaus he had permission to do something that is specifically outside the stated rules provided to every other team within NASCAR? 


That affidavit gives Chad Knaus the golden ticket to work outside of NASCAR’s stated rules. That’s exactly why Hendrick kept his cards so close to his vest and didn’t want to give details of their defense strategy. That affidavit gives Hendrick exactly what NASCAR was trying to prevent – an unfair advantage over every other team in the garage. 


So there you have it – Chad Knaus knowingly out-foxed the officials network within the NASCAR organization and in the process, created the advantage for his team. Fair or unfair…it appears, he meticulously worked within the officials network to weave his web for success.  

The next question on everyone’s mind – How will NASCAR respond?


Yesterday, Kerry Tharp of NASCAR said, “We think the process speaks for itself, and we think it’s a good, fair process. I think there is still evidence that there was a rules infraction. The $100,000 fine is intact, so there was a rules infraction committed.” 


Tharp continued, “I think we take on the responsibility of regulating that garage, and we take that very, very seriously. The ability for us to regulate the sport is paramount. We’ve got to be able to do that, and we will continue to do that, and we think the sport is better off for it.”


Well Mr. Tharp, the sponsors, owners, drivers, crews and fans of all the other teams within NASCAR expect every single official to take that responsibility seriously as well. There is some strong evidence here that more than one official let us and NASCAR as an organization down. 


There’s little doubt, there will be more response from the executives at NASCAR in the days to come. And as said before, time has it’s way of revealing the rest of this on-going story. 

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Crew chief, Chad Knaus and Car chief, Ron Malec  are both subject to a NASCAR imposed six-week suspension Photo – Jamie Squire/Getty Images “As far as my reputation goes, I’m not too concerned about that.”   – Chad Knaus 48 Team Crew Chief

Once again, Rick Hendrick will defend the 48 team on Tuesday, March 20th. This time he will present their “shades of gray” defense to the Chief Appellate Officer, John Middlebrook.  


On the surface, it certainly appears, this may be the 48 team’s best chance at getting their penalty reduced with a two-point defense and perhaps an ace up their sleeve, that may explain Jimmie Johnson’s vote of confidence saying, the appeal will be in their favor when all is said and done on Tuesday. 

Defense one: The 48 team worked within the gray area of the C-post. That area not covered by the template NASCAR uses to measure the car as part of their inspection process. In Daytona, the car was never presented for template measurement.

Defense two: The same 48 car passed the inspection process multiple times in the 2011 season, without incident. 

And one possible ace up their sleeve is in playing their cards on the outcome of Middlebrook’s first appeal case in 2010. 

The 2010 case involved team owner Richard Childress disputing driver Clint Bowyer’s team penalties after the first race of the Chase which include 150 driver/owner points, a $150,000 fine and suspension of crew chief Shane Wilson for six races. Middlebrook did not reduce the points penalty but did reduce fines to $100,000 and the crew chief suspension to four races. So why not take this appeal as far as possible in hopes of at least reducing some portion of the penalty…right?


Moving along to NASCAR’s argument to uphold the penalty, those objectively looking at both sides of this particular situation, will find Hendrick’s “shades of gray” seem to fade when NASCAR’s perspective comes into focus as a “black and white” issue. Their argument centers on a sanctioning body decision to maintain integrity in the bodywork of all cars with a strict standard to address concerns by Team Owners and Sponsors of unfair advantages between smaller and larger funded teams. The intent of their well-publicized decision is to equalize the playing field, leaving a no gray area for teams to alter any part of the strict specifications provided by NASCAR. The strict standard was made clear to all teams not only when the decision was made, but was further clarified specifically to the 48 team in 2007 when they were caught with flared fenders in Sonoma. 


Scene Daily reports the specific NASCAR rule restated for the 48 team in 2007 is simply this,

“Streamlining the contours of the cars, beyond that approved by the Series Director, will not be permitted.” 

Seems to be straight forward and clearly stated. Knowing this rule was clearly articulated for the the 48 team – not once but twice – creates a huge hole in Hendrick’s “defense one.” This particular rule is in place entirely because there is no template covering every inch of the car during inspection. Furthermore, it was revealed in the appeal panel review last Tuesday, the officials in Daytona used gauges to measure the C-Posts after a visual inspection gave cause to do so. Those gauge measurements actually aided the officials’ determination – the C-Posts did not meet the specifications provided by NASCAR for the specific body part. 

Do you teach our children about ethics? Do you abide by the same ethical standard?

The argument from some is that Knaus is suppose to exploit the boundaries of the rules. Really? When NASCAR is clearly stating their intention to level the playing field in relationship to the contours of the car at the request of team owners and sponsors, the argument is that Chad Knaus and other crew chiefs are simply doing their job by directly ignoring the stated rules to exploit the intention of the sanctioning body? Wow, is this the same ethical standard you teach to your children? 


Sorry, that argument simply does not hold water in this case. While there may be a small window of opportunity in other areas of the car, it’s plainly stated in the rules, the contour of the car is not one of those areas. In 2007, Knaus certainly tested his boundaries of the rules and was given another chance to demonstrate his understanding of the limitations within the stated rule. So what did he do with his reduced penalties provided via the appeals process? Yeah, you’ve got it, Knaus blatantly, ignored those limitations and boundaries…again. Although this offense was discovered in 2012, Hendrick and Knaus admit the car ran on the track in violation of the stated rules multiple times in 2011.  


Hendrick “defense two” loses credibility when you realize the 48 team knew they were modifying a specific body part that was not specifically approved by NASCAR’s Series Director. Surely, they would know if they took these parts to the series director specifically for the purpose of getting an approval. They did not take these steps, because they knew the part was in violation of the rule. In fact, it becomes difficult to believe anyone actually thinks defense two might work.  Hendrick is in essence saying, because no one said anything when we knowingly broke the rules several times in 2011, so the team should not be penalized since we were not caught those multiple times before the Daytona 2012 discovery.  


To fully understand just how absurd this defense truly is, just think about how well this same strategy would work for a traffic offender when a police officer stops the offender for a mere traffic violation.  Let’s try this out to make the point imminently clear. 

You can’t be serious?

“Officer, I can’t believe you are going to give me a ticket when I’ve run through red lights so many times before and no one said anything to me.” 

And to make matters worse, the traffic offender goes on to say, 

“Since no one ever stopped me before, I thought it was OK for me to run through red lights.” 

Sounds like a pretty lame excuse, because it “is a lame” excuse. 


Let’s take this one step further and analyze what these two statements truly say about the traffic offender.  

One, this person has no respect for traffic laws or the governing body putting those laws into place.

Two, this person apparently also has no regard for others that could be affected by their abuse of the law.  

Three, this person clearly has no regard for themselves, personally as they could also be harmed by this practice, including the damage to their reputation in using such a frivolous defense.  

Chad Knaus is creating his personal reputation Even though he’s not concerned about that.

Amazing, there’s that word again…”reputation.” Ah, that’s right. Chad Knaus said in regard to the multiple penalties levied against him during his career as a NASCAR crew chief… 

“As far as my reputation goes, I’m not too concerned about that.”  

Apparently, he also has no respect for the governing body, the rules they have put in place and have clearly stated – not once but twice. Nor does he have any respect for others within his team, or the sport affected by his clearly demonstrated lack of respect


With NASCAR’s perspective clarified, it appears there would be only one choice that truly makes sense for John Middlebrook.  Especially taking into consideration that NASCAR understood Mr. Middlebrook’s perspective when their Childress penalties were reduced from $150,000 to $100,000. So, NASCAR levied a $100,000 fine against repeat offender, Chad Knaus. They even made concessions with the point penalties within a new points structure, with only 25-point deductions for the driver and owner and with an entire season remaining to recover those points vs. the 150 points deducted from Clint Bowyer’s championship hopes in 2010 with only nine races remaining in the season. The disparities are evident with the concessions already provided by NASCAR to the 48 Team. 


Where is NASCAR drawing the line in the sand? The six-race suspension of the most penalized crew chief in the garage. And if the suspension holds, he will still be burning up his phone battery communicating with his team while he is away from the track. 


Everyone with an interest in NASCAR will be watching for the outcome of the Hendrick appeal and how they play their cards knowing they have weak defense strategies in place. What is presented here is what has been made public. The weakness in the Hendrick defense is apparent and there’s not a lot of rocket science involved here. However, there may be some unknowns and that could put a wild card in play. 


What folks really want to know, is how John Middlebrook will respond to the Hendrick strategy. Why do we want to know? Because his response will impact the integrity and the way this sport plays out in the future. 


Either the game is played by the strict standards currently in place; Or those choosing to not play by the same rules are further enabled to manipulate the system. The same system put in place to equalize the field as requested by team owners and sponsors. Honestly, if the latter occurs, does that not equate to an epic fail in the process? 


John Middlebrook, will either open pandora’s box for everyone, eroding the sanctioning body’s strict standards; Or once again, the Hendrick 48 team will have the rules clarified and penalties upheld with the intention of ending any doubt of the already twice given rule which is clearly stated and strictly standardized for all teams. 


The next question that comes to mind – where is the line drawn for Chad Knaus, if after this appeal, he once again demonstrates his disregard for the governing body, his team, peers, and the integrity of the sport? How many more penalties will be tolerated from someone who clearly has no respect for his personal reputation and yet incredibly, anticipates to one day be nominated for NASCAR’s Hall of Fame? With the 48 team penalties piling up and violations not yet discovered, doesn’t this idea seem a bit surreal? 


Chad Knaus has openly stated, he could care less about the asterisk next to his name or his drivers’ name detailing numerous penalties throughout his career. But how long will Rick Hendrick and Jimmie Johnson continue to enable the erosion of their personal and team reputations? If they do continue to enable Knaus’ blatant disregard of the rules, they deserve the negative reputation that will certainly follow.  


It seems fairly simple – The “rules don’t apply to me” behavior of the 48 team must change for any sense of credibility to have any chance of being restored for the Hendrick organization and specifically Chad Knaus. Who is expecting this restored credibility? The sponsors, owners, teams, drivers and fans. With the weak defense of the Hendrick 48 team and multiple infractions throughout the past decade, anything less is indeed an epic fail of the process. 


Will Chad Knaus get the message this time?  Either way this might be his last chance to prove he has any sense of integrity and respect for himself and others within NASCAR as well. Winning at the cost of integrity can be a house of cards that one day will most certainly come tumbling down. 


The opinions expressed with this blog are solely those of the writer.  Those with similar and varying perspectives are invited to respectfully post your comments below, providing readers with both supporting and challenging points of view. 


Thanks in advance for your participation in the on-going discussion. 

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