Appeal committee set for Saturday hearing

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- A three-man board representing the National Stock Car Racing Commission has been selected to hear Roush Racing's appeal of penalties of Winston Cup driver and owner points and money following a spring violation two weeks ago at North Carolina Speedway.

	Jack Roush will have his appeal heard early Saturday morning at Homestead. Credit: Autostock

NSCRC chairman George Silbermann and commission members Johnny Capels and John Bishop are scheduled to hear Roush Racing's appeal somewhere on the grounds of Homestead-Miami Speedway Saturday morning at 8 a.m. ET.

Roush Racing president Geoff Smith, a former lawyer who will lead Roush's appeal, waited the available 10 days before filing the appeal on Wednesday. The meeting was set for the race track since the season finale is on Sunday.

Following the penalty of 25 driver points to Mark Martin, Roush's lead driver trails Tony Stewart by 89 points. Roush was also hit with a 25-point owner point deduction and crew chief Ben Leslie was fined $5,000.

Smith said he was comfortable with the commission's makeup. Silbermann is NASCAR's director of administration, Bishop was a founder and former president of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) and Capels was the former president of the United States Auto Club (USAC).

"I think all of the commission members have a tremendous amount of experience in the sport," Smith said, "Regardless of which three were picked, I think the fact that they are experienced people is helpful to make it easier for us to present our point of view with regard to whether or not there was a performance enhancement gained in this rule violation."

Smith also said with the implications on the championship and NASCAR's overall implementation of penalties hanging in the balance, that he would have no trouble sleeping Friday night.

"I actually don't view this as an adversarial confrontation," Smith said. "I view it as the whole organization between the teams and NASCAR as people all coming together trying to do the right thing and this particular process is just to review whether or not the right thing has been done for the circumstance.

"I'm not worried about what any of our people might say so I don't think I'll have any trouble sleeping tonight -- mainly because I think we're doing the right thing and I can usually sleep better knowing we've done the right thing, regardless of the outcome."