| |  | | CIA Stock Photo | Robby Gordon says unapproved Charger noses were delivered to his shop instead of approved Avenger noses. | | | | FREE ROBBY | Robby Gordon hopes appeal will mitigate penalty | |
| | By Reid Spencer / Sporting News Wire Service FONTANA, Calif. -- With public sentiment and the power of his sponsor lined up behind him, Robby Gordon hopes to win an appeal that will remove -- or at least mitigate -- the fines and penalties NASCAR levied against him after the Daytona 500.
During pre-qualifying inspection for the season-opening race, NASCAR officials found an unapproved nose on Gordon's No. 7 Dodge. Having announced a switch from Ford to Dodge less than a week earlier, Gordon says unapproved Charger noses were delivered to his shop instead of approved Avenger noses.
Gordon installed the Charger noses on his superspeedway cars and brought them to Daytona, only to replace them after NASCAR found the problem.
The Charger nose has been submitted to NASCAR for approval, but has not completed the vetting process. The differences between the approved and unapproved noses are minimal.
Three days after Gordon finished eighth in the Daytona 500, NASCAR announced that the last true owner/driver in the Sprint Cup garage would be docked 100 driver championship points and 100 owner points. Crew chief Frank Kerr incurred a $100,000 fine, a six-race suspension and probation for the rest of the year.
Believing the punishment too excessive, Gordon FedEx'ed his appeal of the penalties to NASCAR, setting in motion a process that may take a month or more to resolve, in that the parties must make their cases before a three-person panel from the National Stock Car Racing Commission, which operates out of NASCAR headquarters in Daytona Beach, Fla. In the meantime, Kerr will stay on Gordon's pit box for Sunday's Auto Club 500 at California Speedway, and the fine is postponed until the appeal is adjudicated.
"We're going to jail for a crime we didn't commit," Gordon said Friday before Sprint Cup practice. "It's almost like putting yourself in the position where someone steals your car and robs a bank, and because it was your car, you're going to jail. I don't think this is a fair penalty, and obviously, we have to appeal it.
"My sponsors, Jim Beam, and everybody else are behind us as a race team.
They feel that we have not done anything wrong, and they're confident that NASCAR will make the right decision, once they hear the whole appeal process."
In fact, Jim Beam president and CEO Thomas J. Flocco sent a strong letter to NASCAR president Mike Helton, vice president of competition Robin Pemberton and Sprint Cup series director John Darby, urging the sanctioning body to reconsider the ruling.
"As a proud sponsor of Robby Gordon for the past four years," Flocco wrote, "Jim Beam believes that the 100-point penalty handed down by NASCAR is excessive -- we support his decision to appeal.
". . . Your decision unfairly penalizes Robby, his sponsors and his fans. In fact, nearly 70 percent of racing fans on NASCAR.com are standing up for Robby and agree with our assessment. While we fully support the rules NASCAR has put in place to keep the playing field level, we ask that you closely review all the facts. . ."
It's NASCAR's position that a violation occurred and should be punished accordingly.
"The bottom line is that the car was presented for inspection with an unapproved front bumper cover, and that is a rule violation," said NASCAR spokesperson Kerry Tharp. "And, this type of penalty is not unprecedented."
On the other hand, NASCAR has shown leniency in the past when the sanctioning body has deemed an infraction unintentional. When Jeff Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet failed the height stick test before last year's Daytona 500, because of an improperly installed shock mount bolt, the driver was forced to start from the rear in his Duel 150 qualifying race -- but no point penalties, fines or suspensions were imposed.
"We are 100 percent sure this is unintentional," Pemberton said in announcing the penalty.
Robby Gordon says he is equally guiltless and that the unapproved piece provided no competitive advantage -- both factors in the lenient treatment of the No. 24 team.
"There was no intent," he insisted. "The severity of the penalty doesn't just blow us away. It blows a lot of other crew chiefs in the garage away. They're very surprised that it's as steep as it is. Like I said, the consistency is not there.
"I'll be honest here. As a mistake, I'd hate to lose any points -- like zero -- but I was kind of content with, 'OK, well, I guess I'll get 25, and that will drop us to 16th in the championship, and we can probably deal with that.' A hundred could be life-threatening for our race team."
Gordon's finances took a severe blow when the canceled off-road Dakar rally gobbled up the better part of $4.5 million from the driver and his backers. The 100-point penalty has dropped him from ninth to 40th in the owners' standings -- below the all-important top-35 mark needed to guarantee a spot in the field each week.
The National Stock Car Racing Commission rarely rescinds NASCAR's rulings, but there is precedent. Last October, the commission threw out a $10,000 fine levied against crew chief Mike Bumgarner for excessive modifications to the plenum of the intake manifold on the No. 5 Busch Series Chevrolet driven to victory by Kyle Busch at Kansas City a month earlier.
At the very least, Gordon can hope for mercy. His survival may depend on it.
"We don't want to fight NACAR," Gordon said. "We want to participate in NASCAR, and we want to compete at this level. We've got a great race team. This is not a fight that we put ourselves in. This is just defending ourselves in a situation where we were treated unfairly. . .
"If this sticks, I don't know what our plan will be. I'll be honest with you. But there is . . . I think open wheel got back together, and I know I can drive one of those cars." | | Posted February 23, 2008 , 10:37 pm EST
Last Updated February 23, 2008 , 10:37 pm EST | | | | | | |
