The Buzz: March 25, 2001

March 25, 2001
6:17 PM EST (2317 GMT)

Stewart aftermath

NASCAR director of competition Kevin Triplett said Sunday that action will be taken against Tony Stewart for his post-race retaliation tactics against Jeff Gordon following the Food City 500.

Gordon got together with Stewart in Turn 4 of the final lap, and as the two cars peeled onto pit road after the race Stewart hit Gordon's car.

There will likely be no action taken against Gordon, as his spin of Stewart happened during close racing action.

Hear ye, hear ye

No. 92 Dodge crew chief Chad Knaus will attend a hearing Tuesday in Charlotte. The hearing is in regards to Knaus' appeal of a $5,000 fine and two-week suspension NASCAR gave him following preliminary inspection prior to the Cracker Barrel 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

During that inspection, NASCAR cited Knaus for having a shoulder harness without proof of manufacture date.

The team felt unjustly accused, saying the belts were brand new, and that the manufacture date, which was sewn to a portion of the belt slack, was cut off.

"The belts in question are brand new belts, and we can prove that. As a matter of safety, we trim off excess shoulder belt material," said Knaus. "If we did not discard the extra 16 to 24 inches of material, the unused part of the belt would hang free in the cockpit. We don't believe rolling up the excess material provides as safe an alternative as trimming off the excess. When we trimmed off the excess belt material, we also cut off the tag.

"However, the other belts from this set still had their dated tags, which indicated that this set was new. If NASCAR fined and suspended every crew chief because only one belt was not dated, then every crew chief would be fined and suspended because not every belt is dated. Only three of the five belts that make up a safety restraint system have dated tags, and Simpson even makes a set of belts, harnesses and hardware that come in one box and has only one date tag. So how does NASCAR know the other belts or harnesses are up to spec?

"They look at the other belts or harnesses that are dated, and they judge the system as a whole. They didn't do that in Atlanta. It's unfortunate, because I personally make sure that our team goes above and beyond the industry standard to ensure the safety of our cars," said Knaus. "Let me add that I'm glad that NASCAR leaves the choice of safety equipment to the teams.

"I want that responsibility, and I think NASCAR generally does a very good job policing the safety equipment in these cars. In this case, however, I feel like we are being made an example of."