Eury penalized for roof violation
By Dave Rodman, Turner Sports Interactive
October 23, 2001
1:46 PM EDT (1746 GMT)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- As expected, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s stirring victory in Sunday’s NASCAR Winston Cup Series EA Sports 500 presented by Dodge at Talladega Speedway stood on Monday.
But for the second time in three months, Junior and his Dale Earnhardt, Inc. teammates find themselves staggering under a load of misplaced perceptions after a stunning superspeedway victory. DEI was included Monday in a roster of teams whose crewmembers were fined a total of more than $61,000 for a variety of infractions.
Sunday, Earnhardt Jr. displayed a dominant car and scored a .388-second victory over Tony Stewart. But some two hours after he took the checkered flag, his car failed post-race technical inspection when it was found to be an eighth of an inch below the 51-inch minimum roof height requirement.
Monday NASCAR announced it had fined Earnhardt Jr.’s crew chief Tony Eury $25,000 for the infraction, a violation of Section 12-4-T in the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup Series rule book, “Any car that is found to be under the specified height requirement after the completion… of the race.”
Per standard NASCAR practice, Earnhardt Jr.’s fifth career victory and third of the season was never in jeopardy.
The penalty mirrored that delivered to Penske Racing crew chief Peter Sospenzo 18 months ago for a similar violation. After the April 30, 2000 NAPA Auto Parts 500 at California Speedway, winner Jeremy Mayfield’s car was found to be under the height requirement in post-race inspection.
At that time, drivers’ post-race celebrations were not as closely monitored and Mayfield had jumped on his car’s roof in Victory Lane.
For the past four races, drivers have been prohibited from getting on the roofs of their cars. At Kansas Speedway, Lowe’s Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway officials held a PVC pipe barrier that prevented each winning driver from climbing atop his car.
By the time Talladega came up on the schedule, enough grumbling had been heard from fans, media, competitors and even NASCAR officials that the device’s use was discontinued and drivers were simply told not to get on the roof.
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Tony Eury Sr. (left) and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
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Earnhardt Jr. stood on his car’s windowsill after he exited the cockpit. A NASCAR spokesperson said the post-race inspection had not determined how the car ended the race under the height requirement.
“We have the actual car here,” DEI spokesman Steve Crisp said Monday evening. “The springs must’ve settled more than we figured for (because) it was legit when it went through the height sticks before the race. We know that (springs settling) is something that is pretty closely watched.”
“Obviously we’re gonna do what we have to do to pass inspection,” Crisp said, adding that nothing would be done to limit his team’s drivers’ celebrations. “We add a little bit keeping that (springs settling) in mind (but) to be honest, looking at it from NASCAR’s point of view they have a zero tolerance policy and we respect them for doing that (fine). If you don’t meet the specs you pay the fine.”
Junior won the July 7 Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway in the Winston Cup Series first return to Daytona International Speedway, where his father Dale Earnhardt was killed in an accident on the last lap of the Daytona 500. Some people implied that there was a conspiracy to ensure Earnhardt Jr.’s victory, even though he finished second to teammate Michael Waltrip in the Daytona 500 and was eighth at Talladega in the spring.
Earnhardt won Talladega’s fall race in 2000 for his 76th and final career victory.
Monday, in addition to the winning crew chief’s fine, nine other crew chiefs were fined for violations ranging from an “altercation” during the race to a variety of illegal parts. One crewman was fined and indefinitely suspended from NASCAR for selling race credentials.
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