Chad Chaffin's car was disqualified at Pocono for being less than an inch too low. Credit: Autostock

Running afoul of the rule book can cost you cash

When does a quarter of an inch cost $70,000?

It costs that much when you're too low for NASCAR technical inspectors after qualifying, as Front Row Motorsports found out last weekend.

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Over the months, we've discussed a lot of what goes on with the business of NASCAR. That business takes place on the track, in hospitality suites around the country, in board rooms and yes, in the garage area.

The rule book that is sent out to NASCAR teams every season is the Bible of competition. As such, punishments of biblical proportions often result from violations of it.

In this case, a lousy quarter-inch cost Front Row Motorsports and owner Bob Jenkins to the tune of an estimated $70,000.

Here's how it went: Chad Chaffin qualified the car and made the race, but when the car was rolled through technical inspection, it came up a quarter-inch to five-eighths of an inch too low for NASCAR specs.

The car was then pushed through the testing apparatus and rolled back on for another measurement. It was still too low, and Chaffin's time was disallowed.

The team is not in the top 35 in car owner points, so it was one of four cars to miss the race.

Consider that Front Row had transported its cars and team to the track, put them up in a hotel, fed them and otherwise provided for their sustenance. Add to that the entry fee, the cost of leasing tires from Goodyear and buying fuel from Sunoco.

The sum total is variable -- different teams travel in different ways, after all -- but it could be at least $70,000 for all of that. That's not factoring in the cost of the cars, the transporter and the rest of the equipment, but that is amortized over time, so it's not a consideration for this purpose.

Chaffin had made the race, and would have collected last-place monies of at least $60,000 plus had he been able to pass inspection. Then there are the contingency awards for all sorts of products in which the team might have shared.

"Our team is extremely disappointed in the series of events that took place at the track this weekend," Jenkins said. "I want to assure our fans and sponsors that we are committed to working within NASCAR's guidelines to maintain the integrity of our race efforts. At no time this weekend did anyone from our organization purposely attempt to circumvent those guidelines.

"We are unclear why NASCAR chose the course of action that they did. The penalty levied against our team does not seem to be consistent with previous penalties issued for similar offenses. This has left our team with a number of unanswered questions."

Think of it this way. When Jimmie Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus, was asked to leave Daytona International Speedway back in February following a technical violation during qualifying, he was fined $50,000, $20,000 less than what Front Row stood to lose.

The situations are not similar -- Knaus got caught doing something he was not allowed to do and received a specific fine as a result. Front Row's violation was more of a random thing and the team simply lost the chance to earn that money. Instead they had to truck everything back to North Carolina and watch the race on TV.

The point is, passing inspection on a regular basis has a lot to do with the overall bottom line of a racing team. If you can't race, you can't earn, and if you don't earn, well, then it's a tough thing to make business sense out of such an endeavor.

Under-funded teams like Front Row -- and that's in comparison to the Hendricks, Ganassis, Roushes and Gibbs' of the NASCAR world -- often must factor purse monies into the overall budget just to continue to compete. That's not a problem for the mega-teams with major sponsors, who quit racing for purse money years and years ago.

Another factor involved is the loss of potential exposure. By not making the race at Pocono, Front Row Motorsports missed a chance to show its sponsor logos on national television for a three-hour period.

More and more, this is a powerful incentive to racing teams to make races. Sponsors come in many shapes and sizes, but they all like exposure -- it's part of the reason why they shell out mega-dollars to be part of NASCAR.

What happened with Front Row Motorsports on Friday is just one example of how money can be lost in NASCAR, not made.