Notes: Biffle not penalized because there isn't a rule

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Crew chief Pat Tryson was relieved to find that the No. 16 car of his driver, Greg Biffle, was not penalized by NASCAR for being too low in post-race inspection last Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway.

But then, he never thought it was that much of an issue -- until he heard that Robin Pemberton, vice president of competition for NASCAR, had said after the race that the 16 team might be penalized. It wasn't until after the car was taken back to the NASCAR Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C., for further examination that the governing body decided not to do so.

"When we went through [inspection] right after the race, it was low -- and to me, it was no big deal because there's no rule against it," Tryson said. "I wasn't really worried about it and John [Darby, Nextel Cup Series director] didn't seem too worried about it. But then on Monday morning is when we got worried because we saw that Robin had come out and said there was a possibility for penalties."

Darby confirmed Friday at Martinsville Speedway that Tryson's original assessment was correct. There is no rule pertaining to a car being too low. But he said there soon will be.

"There's obviously not a rule in the rulebook or we would have reacted with a penalty. What we're working on, though, is a procedure that will ultimately encompass a maximum and a minimum height," Darby said.

Different times

Back when he was a driver and car owner, Junior Johnson said he had a totally different mentality than folks who are competing in the Nextel Cup Series today.

"I never ran to win a championship. I just went to win races and to beat the other guys. And if my car didn't get tore up, most of the time I accomplished that," Johnson said. "It depends on what your goals are in life. I've seen guys win a championship who never even won a race, or just won one race or whatever.

"Getting that thing riding around just to win a championship is not that impressive to me. To get out there and win 'em like [Dale] Earnhardt won 'em and some guys like that, well, that's impressive."

But when he was asked if NASCAR now places too much emphasis on winning the championship, Johnson quickly shook his head no.

"No, because it's worth so dang much money, you'd be foolish not to try to win it. And we went after 'em. But we didn't go after 'em at the expense of trying to win races." Johnson said. "Most of our drivers who won championships won a lot of races. If I would catch a guy trying to win a championship on the racetrack, his a** was in trouble. I went to win every race; that's what I went to do. If a championship come, it come." (Continued)