Jimmie Johnson's team hit with prolific penalties, Johnson docked 25 driver points

NASCAR has penalized Jimmie Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and car chief Ron Malec for illegal modifications found on their Daytona 500 car during the first day of Daytona Speedweeks.

Knaus and Malec have been suspended for six race weekends, until April 18 and placed on NASCAR probation until May 9. Additionally, NASCAR has fined Knaus $100,000.

Most notably, NASCAR has docked Johnson 25 driver points, placing him 70 points behind leader Matt Kenseth to start the season.

Hendrick Motorsports immediately announced it will appeal the penalty.

"Our organization respects NASCAR and the way the sanctioning body governs our sport," team owner Rick Hendrick said. "In this case, though, the system broke down, and we will voice our concerns through the appeal process."

Knaus and Malec will continue to attend races while the appeal is processed.

This is the most prolific public penalty in the recent history of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Was it too much or did Knaus' repeat offender status force the Sanctioning Body's hand?

3 months ago MattWeaver 9 comments 0 recs |

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Dropping the hammer

I didn’t know C-posts were that important and I didn’t know Smokey Yunick worked for Hendrick

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"Clemson should've stopped turning the ball over" Dana Holgorsen when asked about running up the score in the Orange Bowl

by WVPiratesfan on Feb 29, 2012 3:33 PM EST reply actions

Seriously?

Maybe it’s stupid to base penalties on result, but Johnson left daytona with what, 3 points? Sadler gave Johnson more than he deserved in terms of penalty.

by jshaunburke on Feb 29, 2012 3:35 PM EST reply actions

While I agree with you, that’s an awfully bad precedent to set if you’re NASCAR. This is especially so when Knaus has made it clear that he’s not afraid of NASCAR sanctions.

He’s been fined, suspended, docked owner’s points…By spreading the penalty to Malec and Johnson, NASCAR hoes Knaus finally gets the message.

Besides, the peanlty was decided-on before the Daytona 500 got started on Monday night. The end result of that race didn’t matter one bit.

Follow me on Twitter @MattWeaverSBN

Senior Writer and Editor for SBNation's NASCAR Ranting and Raving

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by MattWeaver on Feb 29, 2012 3:43 PM EST up reply actions

I don’t think there should have been a penalty at all. That last comment was more tongue-in-cheek.

NASCAR says the 48 fit the template, but didn’t like the way the C-posts fit. OK, make them spend the time and money to fix the problem (BEFORE THEY HIT THE TRACK).

I think there needs to be hard evidence in order to issue a points/monetary/suspension penalty.
If nascar doesn’t like the way the C-post looks, they need to make a new template to check for that area, not issue such severe penalties when someone does work in that area.

by jshaunburke on Feb 29, 2012 4:09 PM EST up reply actions

If it fits templates,

there shouldn’t be a problem.

If NASCAR doesn’t like it, change the templates. They certainly have outlawed plenty of formerly not illegal parts at this and every other level before when someone shows up with something they weren’t smart enough to think of in advance.

Even it doesn’t fit, in PRE-Race, tell them what’s wrong and send them back to fix it.

Andy Wooldridge, andy_wooldridge@yahoo.com
BuildingTheDam.Com
Go Beavs!

by AndyPanda on Feb 29, 2012 7:20 PM EST up reply actions