Compton's qualifying time disallowed

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR officials Thursday afternoon announced that ST Motorsports driver Stacy Compton's sixth-place qualifying speed for Friday night's Busch Series Stacker 2/GNC Live Well 250 at Daytona International Speedway had been disallowed.

	Stacy Compton

The standard post-qualifying inspection, which was actually expanded to include the top 10 cars after Wednesday night's Bud Pole Qualifying session, revealed infractions with the car's right rear shock absorber.

Compton's No. 59 Kingsford Chevrolet, which qualified with a speed of 184.298 mph, had a right rear shock that violated the NASCAR rule that requires .030-inch diameter bleed holes for the shock absorber tube with an inside diameter of 1.770 inches or less.

ST crew chief Steve Plattenberger said that not only were the shocks in his car the same set that had been used in the April Aaron's 312 at Talladega Superspeedway, they had been taken apart and inspected after Compton finished second to Jason Keller.

"That was the same shock we run at Talladega," Plattenberger said. "One bleed hole was just a little tight -- we don't know why. We went over and bought a new piston this morning, drilled it with the same drill, took it over to NASCAR and it was fine.

"We don't know if it was the weather last night or just one of those things. All we know is one of the holes was just too tight. After we finished second at Talladega they (NASCAR) tore those shocks apart.

"I know they're the same ones because I told the boys, 'We're second here, make sure we've got the same thing (for Daytona).' We marked 'em and put 'em back in but for some reason it (test gauge) didn't go in -- one hole. What are you gonna do?"

NASCAR Busch Series director Brian DeHart said the test gauges showed the bleed hole in question to be about .029-inch -- just .001 inch too small.

Another crew chief said smaller bleed holes would enable the shock to rebound more slowly, therefore keeping the car's rear spoiler in a more advantageous, lower position and out of the airflow.

The rear shock also did not meet the standards of the NASCAR inspection pins, which must be able to be inserted through the bleed holes from the origination of the bleed hole to the inner rebound port wall without any interference. The NASCAR pins also must contact the inner rebound port wall when exiting the bleed hole, which also did not occur during post-qualifying inspection.

When his time was disallowed, Compton -- whose owner Tad Geschickter is 12th in Busch Series owners' points -- took the first provisional to start 37th. All the other cars in the 43-car field moved up one spot, which allowed Larry Gunselman into the field in 36th on his qualifying speed in the No. 94 Labrat Sportswear/Waterloo Chevrolet.

A similar violation earlier this season at Talladega cost Bobby Hamilton Jr. his fifth-place qualifying position. He also started 37th there.