Sauter's confiscated tires pass NASCAR inspection

Tires were taken after Busch race at Loudon

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- NASCAR officials said Friday that the four tires taken from Curb-Agajanian Racing and driver Johnny Sauter's No. 43 Chevrolet after a Busch Series race last month at New Hampshire International Speedway had passed all tests and no further action would be taken.

	Johnny Sauter

"All tests for outside substances on the tires have been concluded, and they were negative," NASCAR spokesman Mike Zizzo said.

The news was expected by team co-owner Cary Agajanian, but he was smiling broadly Friday at MIS, where driver Johnny Sauter qualified 28th for Saturday's Cabela's 250.

"Obviously we're happy and relieved," Agajanian said. "We appreciate NASCAR's fairness in the way they enforce the rules. We don't want to be racing against anybody that has an unfair advantage over us, so we accepted what they had to do and we're going forward from here.

"We don't have to resort to doing anything like that (cheating), because we have such a great young team with a great young driver and a great crew chief, Joe Shear.

"Most of all, my son Jacob, who takes care of the tires, promised me that he had not touched them (tires), so it will be a lot better at the family dinner table when we all sit down to eat."

The three-and-a-half week process began the Monday after the New England 200, which was held on July 19.

After Sauter was several tenths of a second better than the lead cars in the race after a pit stop -- after running in mid-pack in the race's early stages -- NASCAR took the team's tires after its next stop.

Sauter, who had driven his car into the lead, ultimately suffered an engine failure and finished 25th.

The tires in question were bagged and taken back to NASCAR's research and development center in Concord, N.C., were they were given a visual examination and a "sniff test" on the Monday following the race.

After that, they were sent to an unidentified facility outside North Carolina, where a variety of tests were done. Midway through the process, Zizzo said, a standard tire from Goodyear was requested to do some baseline testing.

Agajanian said that initially NASCAR literally took Sauter's car apart "looking for traction control."

Sauter, who is splitting the season in the Curb-Agajanian car and a similar PayDay Chevrolet fielded by Richard Childress Racing, is eighth in the Busch Series driver standings heading into Saturday's race.

RCR, which also uses Winston Cup driver Kevin Harvick, is leading the Busch Series' owner standings.