Serious penalties for Edwards

March 5, 2008 · Paul Raymond · Jump to comments

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The No. 99 car of Carl Edwards and team were docked and fined something serious today. Edwards was personally docked 100 points and loses his 10 chase bonus points. His crew chief Bob Osborne was fined $100,000 and suspended six weeks. While owner, Jack Roush was penalized 100 owner points. So what happened, and what does this mean for Edwards and company.

For those who don’t know already, after Edwards victory at Las Vegas it was discovered that he had no cover on his oil tank. The casual driver or Nascar fan would go whats the big deal with that. Well it’s believed that by uncovering the tank trunk, the air will be able to circulate more freely through the car and add as much of 10% more downforce to the car.

For Edwards, this 100 point loss knocks him out of first place in the standings. He dropped all the way to seventh. The biggest part of the fine when it comes to Edwards is losing 10 chase points. Every driver who wins during the regular season will get a 10 point bonus in the Chase for the Cup at the end of the season (if he makes it). So if Edwards does make the Chase he won’t get the credit for this win. This is huge cause if you look at last year’s Chase, Jimmie Johnson got a nice bonus for all his early season wins and started above teammate Jeff Gordon who was the most consistent.

The team is hoping to get the parts back from NASCAR to do their own inspection. THey believe a bolt failed and thats how the cover came lose, so they’d like to inspect the part and see if that truly is the case. “We are not yet sure if we will be participating in a 16th century exercise in the judicial system,” Smith said. “It’s a tough business for any race team to have to pledge $100,000, 100 points and a six-race crew chief suspension as an indemnity payment to NASCAR against a promise forced from us by NASCAR that no bolt will ever fail its purpose under race conditions.”