J Gordon to the Back for Cheatin' Oh, my...

Gordon: Infraction not like others, penalty fair
Former 500 winner sent to back for unintentional mishap
By David Caraviello, NASCAR.COM
February 16, 2007
10:10 PM EST

type size: + -DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Jeff Gordon can handle being sent to the back of the Daytona 500 because of a height violation on his racecar. But he bristles at the notion that his team deserves a fine or point deduction like those incurred by others during the last week at Daytona International Speedway.

"I will challenge any person in this garage area that knows how these cars go around the racetrack to tell me that car had a competitive advantage," said Gordon, whose victory in Thursday's second 150-mile qualifying race was tainted when his No. 24 car was found to be an inch too low in inspection.



Gordon's car fails
post-race inspection
Jeff Gordon won the second Gatorade Duel but will not start the Daytona 500 from the fourth position after a height violation was found on his No. 24 Chevrolet.

• Complete story click here
"The bottom line is, we were low," he said. "We take full responsibility for that. I'm just mad that it happened."

NASCAR forced Gordon to vacate his fourth-place starting position, moving him to 42nd for Sunday's season-opening event. Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president for competition, said bolts had been misaligned on the rear shocks of Gordon's car, and the load placed on the bolts during the race forced the quarterpanels below the minimum allowed height.

But Pemberton stressed that he believed the infraction was unintentional, and that further penalties were unwarranted. Jeff Burton agreed, but only after inspecting the part and talking to Nextel Cup series director John Darby on Friday.

"In this case, I don't think they deserved a point penalty or a suspension, because it probably was a negligible gain on the racetrack. And if you look at the part, it wasn't intentional," Burton said.

"So it probably wasn't much of a gain. It wasn't intentional. It's not like they set out to intentionally cheat, which should be dealt with differently if they did. I went in there very uncomfortable with the penalty, and after looking at the part, I'm very comfortable with the penalty."

But in a Speedweeks where four crew chiefs have been suspended and four drivers have been docked points because of an array of illegal modifications, any violation raises skeptical eyebrows. Gordon knows there's a segment of the NASCAR fan base that believes he received favorable treatment, and he wishes he had the opportunity to convince them otherwise.

"We're up against the fact that, unless we can take every member of the media and every fan out there, and every driver and crew chief in this garage area, and go and show them exactly what happened and allow them to understand it, they're going to make their own opinion," he said. "We understand that. We take full responsibility for it. I feel like it didn't have anything to do with the win, but now all we can do is put it behind us."

Now Gordon faces the prospect of trying to win a fourth Daytona 500 from the next-to-last starting spot, with only Dale Jarrett -- who got in on a past champion's provisional -- behind him. The farthest any driver has ever come back from is 33rd place, where Bobby Allison started in 1978. Sixteen of the last 20 Daytona 500 winners have started inside the top 10.

"It's going to take a lot," Gordon said. "Trust me. There's a reason no one has ever won this race from that far back."

And after the race, it's right back to the technical inspection shed. "We have to go through that inspection again after the race, and get through that cleanly," Gordon said. "We have every intention of making sure that happens."

 

I agree with you totally. Sorry, I just didn't think of it. I like you am surprised at the NASCAR support on a Ferrari site. Unfortuneately, it's the only game in town right now.

28 days to Melbourne.
Forza Ferrari.

 

Plus, as starter of this thread, I am a Jeff Gordon fan.

However, we just got 10" of snow and I am going skiing. I'll watch the highlights tonight. Maybe.

Ciao
If skiing were easy they'd call it snow boarding.

Old Joke (PG-13):

What do Dale Earnhardt and Pink Floyd have in common?

Their last hit was "The Wall". Boooo...

 

Cher and I are dating and she is very sensitive about that Bono guy.
She has mixed emotions about it, they go from ecstatic to overjoyed.

The Earnhardt joke was not original. I just copied it from a NASCAR jokes site. I said "Booo"

Lighten up. The first 100 years are the hardest, after that it's all down hill.

 

Michael Waltrip was penalized for using a performance enhancing substance in his race car.

The way officials could tell was that his lugnuts shrunk!

 

Fontana:
Got the pole.
Came in second.
Moved up to third in the overall standings.
If he's not cited for cheatin' again.

Life is good.
Deal with it.

 

He has a sexual preference? Pray tell.

 

Looks like she has all the right equipment to me.
She hasn't seen her feet in years.

If I were MW I'd be driving something instead of a car all the time.

Either that or it's time for him to come out of the closet.