Moving violations in NASCAR

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- As part of a new get-tough initiative on cheating launched last July, NASCAR officials yesterday dropped the hammer on four crew chiefs, suspending two for two races and two others for four races, beginning with the season-opening Daytona 500, for unapproved modifications discovered during pre- and post-qualifying inspections last Sunday.

"Mr. [Mike] Helton [NASCAR president] made the announcement at Chicago last year that we were going to ratchet up the penalties," said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president for competition. "I think you can see that it's happened.

NASCAR cracked down on Robbie Reiser, crew chief for driver Matt Kenseth, and Kenny Francis, crew chief for driver Kasey Kahne, hitting them with $50,000 fines and four-race suspensions for aerodynamic modifications found in their cars during postqualifying inspections. Kenseth's and Kahne's qualification times were disallowed.

NASCAR also found that the No. 10 Dodge of Scott Riggs and the No. 19 Dodge of Elliott Sadler, both fielded by Evernham Motorsports, had improper modifications when they were presented for prequalification inspection. After corrections were made to both cars, NASCAR officials allowed their qualifying times to stand.

"The two postqualifying violations, there was air that was improperly inducted into the car in the wheel well and oil tank area," Pemberton said. "The two prequalifying violations, there was modifications to the fasteners that hold the spoiler to the rear deck that helped leak air out of the trunk area."

Officials found violations of Section 12-4-A (actions detrimental to stock car racing), 12-4-Q (car, car parts, components and/or equipment not conforming to NASCAR rules) and 20-2.1E (unapproved aerodynamic modification) of the Nextel Cup rule book.

"You can't expect with 120 cars, thousands of rules that are out there, that some teams aren't either going to intentionally cross the line or inadvertently cross the line," said NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France in his State of the Sport address yesterday at Daytona International Speedway. "Either way, it's our job to protect the integrity of the sport."

Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 Roush Racing Ford, and Kahne, driver of the No. 9 Evernham Motorsports Dodge, were docked 50 driver championship points, while car owners Jack Roush -- who is expected to announce a partnership with Red Sox owner John Henry today -- and Ray Evernham were penalized 50 car owner championship points.

"To be clear on my position regarding NASCAR's decision to penalize the infraction, I respect and accept NASCAR's determination that the car was out of compliance as it was inspected after Sunday's qualifying attempt," Roush said in a statement. "I have asked [Roush Racing president] Geoff Smith to evaluate whether the penalties assessed are unduly harsh for the circumstances before making a final decision as to whether or not we will appeal the severity of the penalty imposed."

Rodney Childers, crew chief for Riggs, and Josh Browne, crew chief for Sadler, were hit with $25,000 fines and two-race suspensions. Riggs and Sadler were penalized 25 driver points, while Evernham was hit with a 25-point penalty for Sadler's car and another 25 points for Riggs's car, which Evernham co-owns with James Rocco.

"We regret that this situation has occurred, and apologize to our partners, team members, fans, and NASCAR," said Evernham, who owns the NASCAR record for the largest fine ($60,000 in May 1995) levied against a crew chief. "Once we conduct a thorough review of NASCAR's findings, we will determine the proper course of action to take. We did not intend to infringe on the rules and will research this matter to ensure it does not occur again."

NASCAR also said it had yet to complete its investigation of Michael Waltrip's car, from which an air intake manifold was confiscated after a foreign substance was detected during a prequalifying inspection. As a precaution, NASCAR officials impounded Waltrip's No. 55 Toyota.

"I think it's obvious that we've ramped up our penalties and we're going to get people's attention and slow this down," Pemberton said. "I think if you looked at what went on a year ago, we had a relatively clean summer and we were trying to grab this thing by the horns as soon as possible this year."

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.