Waltrip's car, manifold confiscated at quals

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- What started as an agonizing inspection process for Michael Waltrip on Sunday at Daytona International Speedway turned dramatic following his Daytona 500 qualifying run, as NASCAR confiscated his car and a second intake manifold from it.

Also running afoul of NASCAR inspectors were Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne, whose qualifying speeds were disallowed due to infractions discovered in post-qualifying inspection.

Before qualifying began NASCAR vice president for competition Robin Pemberton said an inspector in NASCAR's engine checking area "caught a substance inside" Waltrip's No. 55 Toyota Camry's manifold in its initial pass through inspection.

Pemberton said, "We didn't know what it was," so that manifold was immediately seized and would be shipped to NASCAR's tech center in Concord, N.C., for analysis.

It was nearly 2:30 p.m. ET and a number of cars had already made their qualifying runs when Waltrip's car cleared engine inspection.

Apparently NASCAR wasn't done acting on what Waltrip and his employees called "oil" in the manifold. The No. 55 team replaced the manifold and Waltrip qualified before NASCAR seized the car.

"That car is impounded and we don't know how long we'll keep it," NASCAR vice president for corporate communications Jim Hunter said. "Our inspection team was not comfortable that that was oil."

Hunter said that Waltrip's 24th place qualifying speed was currently valid, and that the completion of NASCAR's analysis would determine whether or not the car could be used later this week.

The next on-track activity for Nextel Cup cars is Wednesday's two practices for Thursday's Gatorade Duel qualifying races.

Hunter said any penalties or sanctions for anyone related to the three infractions would be announced later in the coming week, including "monetary fines, points penalties or suspensions."

Late Sunday afternoon, however, Waltrip's organization was baffled. (Continued)