Bumping Incident Costs Steve Wallace
Reid Spencer - SportingNews.com
Oct 29, 2009
Expressing your displeasure can be costly, as Nationwide Series driver Steve Wallace found out Wednesday.
Irate at Matt Kenseth over late-race contact that had spun him into the outside wall and cost him a possible top-five finish, Wallace tagged Kenseth's Ford on pit road after Saturday's Kroger 250 at Memphis Motorsports Park.
NASCAR, which traditionally has taken a dim view of drivers using their cars as weapons, fined Wallace $5,000 and placed him on probation until Dec. 31.
With a 20th-place finish at Memphis, Wallace lost ground to Justin Allgaier, who ran 19th, in the battle for the fifth position in the series standings. Wallace fell one spot to seventh in the points and trails fifth-place Allgaier by 117 points with three races left in the season. Only the top five finishers in the series are recognized on stage during the annual awards banquet in Florida.
Consistent with its treatment of a similar Nationwide race incident involving Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards in August 2008 at Bristol, NASCAR chose not to penalize Wallace any championship points. In 2005, Tony Stewart was fined $5,000 and placed on probation (but not docked points) for bumping the car of Brian Vickers after a Nationwide race at Watkins Glen.
Roush swaps crew chiefs
In an effort to energize two of its Nationwide Series teams, Roush Fenway Racing announced Wednesday that crew chiefs Dan Stillman and Mike Kelley will be trading places.
Stillman will move from Carl Edwards' No. 60 Ford to the No. 6 entry driven by David Ragan and Erik Darnell. Effectively immediately, Kelley will leave the No. 6 Ford to work with Edwards, who is second in the Nationwide standings, 215 points behind leader Kyle Busch and 42 points ahead of third-place Brad Keselowski.
The announcement made by Roush Fenway indicated the change was made "in an effort to strengthen both teams moving into the 2010 season."
NASCAR busts two Nationwide crew chiefs
During opening-day inspection Oct. 23 at Memphis, NASCAR discovered similar rules violations on two cars. On Wednesday, the teams involved learned the price for the infractions.
NASCAR fined owner/crew chief Jay Robinson $2,500 and placed him on probation until Dec. 31 after inspectors found washers designed to conceal holes drilled in the lower A-frame spring bucket of Robinson's No. 49 Chevrolet, driven by Mark Green.
Robinson also lost 25 owner points, and Green was docked 25 championship driver points.
Chris Rice, crew chief of the No. 70 ML Motorsports Chevrolet driven by Shelby Howard, also drew a $2,500 fine and probation until Dec. 31 for the same infraction. Howard lost 25 championship points, and owner Mary Louise Miller was docked 25 owner points.
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