Early Chase Controversy

Only one race in NASCAR's chase to the Sprint Cup championship, there is already major controversy.
After Sunday's race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, race winner Clint Bowyer's car failed inspection due to an infraction that was less than 1/16 of an inch off during post-race inspection. Car owner Richard Childress claims the infraction is due to the car being pushed to the winner's circle by a wrecker truck and other cars tapping Bowyer's bumper on his victory lap in congratulations. The team was docked 150 points, his crew chief, Shane Wilson was suspended for the next 6 races and fined $150,00, and his car chief, Chad Haney has also been suspended for the next 6 races. Both men are on probation until December 31st. Childress says they plan on appealing the punishments.

After winning the race, Bowyer had been leading the point standings for the championship race. After the point reduction, he has been knocked down to 12th place. Considering there are only 12 drivers who qualify to compete for the championship each fall, the loss of points could really hurt Bowyer with only 9 races remaining before the 2010 champion is crowned.




Source: NASCAR.com

While it is good to see NASCAR actually handing out punishments for teams that break the rules, they are showing just how much they limit the teams in their ability to change features of the cars in the sport today. Crew chiefs used to have much more flexibility when it came to setting up the cars, which allowed teams to have to work hard each week to stay competitive. While teams still have to work hard to have to win each week, with the new rules, the cars are virtually the same each week and it can be frustrating for the crews because they can't make their car better without being told they are cheating.

I'm all for making NASCAR more competitive, believe me, I'm sick of Jimmie Johnson winning championships each year. But there has to be a different way to make the field even. As for Bowyer, I feel bad they were caught for only being less than 1/16 of an inch off, but that's just how NASCAR seems to work sometimes.

The next 9 weeks will definitely be interesting to watch.