NASCAR getting tough during inspections

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- For some Winston Cup teams, the Friday-morning trip through Talladega Speedway's inspection gauntlet quickly became torture.

Or a U-turn.

More than one crew spent considerable time Friday repairing rear ends, deck lids and other edges deemed too inexact by template-wielding inspectors. No one lost a vehicle like last week when NASCAR impounded Tony Stewart's primary car after it failed a major rear right measurement at Texas. But there was plenty of exasperation masked by the sound of power tools: No one wants to begin a race weekend with shop duty.

	A Winston Cup official signs off on the No. 18 Chevrolet's Inspection as crew chief Michael McSwain looks on. Credit: Turner Sports Interactive

"Just trying to push the envelope as best as you can," said Michael "Fatback" McSwain, Bobby Labonte's crew chief, whose crew performed some cosmetic surgery to the No. 18's rear end.

They weren't alone.

Dale Jarrett's, Kurt Busch's and Jeff Burton's cars were among those that required additional attention from sanders, files and body-shaping putty. Jeff Green's car didn't clear inspection until halfway through the morning's two-hour Winston Cup practice -- after his crew changed major chassis components.

"The 99 and the folks that had trouble were just trying harder, and they got too close," said Jack Roush, Burton's team owner.

Late Friday, NASCAR announced that two teams had failed post-qualifying inspections. Rookie Larry Foyt, who qualified 45th out of 46 drivers and didn't make the field, had his time disallowed. So did David Green, who qualified sixth with a developmental car for Hendrick Motorsports. He was bumped to 46th, out of the field, and will be replaced by Mike Wallace in the No. 09.

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Wallace will start 36th, based on qualifying time. Both Green's and Foyt's cars were too low in the rear, even with a 1/4-inch allowance for settling.

Pat Tryson, Ricky Rudd's crew chief, said the advent of all the current high-stakes envelope pushing occurred, "The last couple of seasons. But even more so this year with the new templates and the harder inspections. It's bumped everybody up that much closer, so now in order to be a little better than somebody else, you've gotta find a little edge somewhere else."

Crew chiefs weren't the only ones plagued by Friday's inspection woes. Some drivers weren't happy about their cars' early-morning travails. Dale Earnhardt Jr., winner of the past three Talladega events, qualified 14th after posting the day's fastest practice speed. He was suspicious of the effect of inspection rigors.

"We kind of had a little trouble getting through tech, and I think it slowed the car down a little bit going through there," Earnhardt said.

"It looks like it slowed down the 24 [Jeff Gordon]; it slowed us down and the 8 [Earnhardt] and a couple of other guys," said Jimmie Johnson, who starts seventh. "So we're kind of bummed there, but there is nothing we can do. It's the same for everyone, and we've just got to find another way to find a little bit more speed."

"You never know what's going to happen when you go through that inspection line," said Jeff Gordon, who qualified fourth. "And the little tweaking you have to do to get the car to the heights and everything."

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Some teams had no inspection problems, among them Friday's top three qualifiers -- pole-sitter Jeremy Mayfield, second-place Kevin Harvick and third-place Elliott Sadler.

"We were kind of prepared for it, because we really paid a lot of attention to what went on at Daytona," said Ben Leslie, Mark Martin's crew chief (Martin qualified 10th). "We worked on our car to make sure we didn't have a problem. And as hard as it was, we made it through the first time without really any problems."

Three months ago, new common templates made for a protracted initial inspection at Daytona. The next inspection at Rockingham, the season's first non-restrictor-plate race, was nearly as painful. With the exception of Stewart's car last week, there have been few hiccups since, but whatever superspeedway gains that teams had hoped to sneak through Friday were quickly cut off following their first trip through "the room of doom."

"NASCAR's definitely made the box smaller with the things you can change," said Robbie Loomis, Gordon's crew chief. "The biggest thing is, no matter who you are, they're going to take a real stance if you do something wrong. We have to spend as much time now just making sure we're right, thinking about that part of it, as we used to probably thinking about a way to get an advantage, so that's probably the hardest."

McSwain said chasing advantages happens at every track, but it's more pronounced at Daytona and Talladega because engines aren't the only things that NASCAR restricts.

"We can't change the rear springs, can't change the rear shocks," McSwain said. "Can't adjust our track bar -- so much stuff we can't do, that the stuff we can do gets smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller."