NASCAR wondering if infraction was intentional

FORT WORTH, Texas -- It took six races for NASCAR officials to unearth the season's first inspection crisis, but the aftermath could break new ground.

Instead of Texas Motor Speedway asphalt, the car Tony Stewart had hoped to run in Sunday's Samsung/Radio Shack 500 will stick to trailer rails this weekend. The new Chevrolet will return east after failing Friday morning's pre-practice inspection, and next up is extensive testing at NASCAR's research and development center in Concord, N.C.

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Not only will technical personnel learn more about the improper measurement on the car's right rear flank, but they also may be able to gauge that measurement's intent.

"We'll be able to tell you whether it's intentional," said Jim Hunter, NASCAR's vice president for corporate communication, of the tests that R&D staffers will perform.

Conclusions may not be absolute, he added, but given the center's cutting-edge abilities, NASCAR may be able to determine whether the measurement -- deemed a half-inch too wide by inspectors -- was accidental or aerodynamically fashioned.

"By the time we finish with all that, we should be able to say, 'Either we don't know for sure, or there are configurations that could or should have an advantage,'" Hunter said.

A longtime Winston Cup observer, Hunter said Friday's events were a series of firsts. It's the first time NASCAR has impounded a car for anything other than wind tunnel tests, safety issues or wrecks.

"It's the first time we've impounded one that could not be fixed," said Hunter, who remembers Junior Johnson bringing a funky-shaped Ford to Atlanta in the 1960s. He was quickly told to take it back home.

"They called it the Yellow Banana," Hunter said.

The new R&D center may raise the ante for those who would challenge rules, especially if intention can be ascertained, and entire cars must be forfeited to the sanctioning body.

"In the past, we didn't have a place to take them," Hunter said.

Winston Cup series director John Darby admitted the only remedy would have been for Stewart's crew to rebuild the entire rear end of Stewart's car.

"This is a car construction infraction that is just in an area of the car that would be very difficult, if not impossible, to fix at the race track," Darby said.

"I just hope I get it back," said Greg Zipadelli, Stewart's crew chief. "I'm being honest. What they do with it is what they do with it."

Zipadelli was adamant that the faulty measurement was a shop mistake and that Joe Gibbs Racing already was retracing the car's path at its Huntersville, N.C., headquarters. With this season's debut of common templates, which mandate an approximate 50 percent match for all four manufacturers, and initial, excruciating inspections at Daytona and Rockingham, it was galling to be the first offender.

"We've had some very minor [issues with] the way they place templates on them versus [the way we do]," Zipadelli said. "Of just a little tap here or there. The last three weeks we've gotten stickers right through. It's not like every week we're trying to beat the system we're going with. That's what's probably more disappointing than anything, probably a reflection of this team that's not true is really what happened today."

Darby said the infraction surfaced after Stewart's car was about halfway through Friday's template-measuring process. Cup inspection begins with under-chassis, fuel-cell, engine and other internal checks. Template measurements follow, then cars finish with height and weight checks and receive their inspection stickers.

According to NASCAR procedure, notification spread from that individual group of inspectors to their supervisor to the garage supervisor to Darby's on-site office in the red Cup series hauler.

"Time-wise, no, it didn't take long to get from the inspection bay to my desk," he said. "We probably spent more time reconfirming that what we saw was correct, and also reconfirming it with the team, that it was in error."

Darby also said he's seen worse violations.

"I do believe there was surprise," Darby said of Zipadelli's and other team members' reaction. "It appeared that it wasn't an expected conversation. And if you look at the track record that Gibbs Racing has presented all year long, I can understand their surprise, because we haven't had any troubles at all."