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."

Different view

After driver Matt Kenseth appeared to boot the No. 44 car driven by Dale Jarrett out of the way and into the outside wall at Bristol last Sunday, Jarrett had some disparaging remarks to make about Kenseth's driving style.

"We'll have a discussion," Jarrett promised.

Well, as of Friday, that discussion had not taken place. And Kenseth didn't make it seem like it was going to happen anytime soon.

"No, I haven't talked to him," Kenseth said. "I saw his comments. Whenever you get wrecked, no matter what you're gonna get mad. I don't know how he sees it this week, to be honest with you, because I haven't talked to him.

"If I would have run into the back of him, I would have called him right way and talked to him about it -- but I tried to pass him five or six times and when we got through [turns] 3 and 4 being underneath him, that was my spot as far as I'm concerned. So I didn't feel I did anything wrong. It was my spot. I was underneath him and he came down into my lane and spun himself out, so I don't feel like I was at fault in the incident, and I didn't see a big need to seek him out."

COT still coming in '08?

At testing in Bristol in late February, Darby said that he expected to hear a clamoring of support amongst the sport's participants in favor of accelerating the Nextel Cup Series' plan to implement the Car of Tomorrow in all races by 2008.

The original -- and for the time being, still current -- plan called for NASCAR to begin racing the COT full time in 2009 after implementing it for 16 of 36 races this season and 26 of 36 in 2008. Darby said Friday that he is still hopeful that the COT will be used in all Cup races by next season.

"What we do know is that it's terribly hard and it's very frustrating to run two different programs throughout a year," Darby said. "So for most of the mechanics and the crew members and even a lot of the crew chiefs in the garage, they would prefer just going, just making the decision now.

"But for the same reason that the original rollout of the new car was three years -- a three-year period -- will be the same reason that ultimately decides whether '09 is gone and we're all-in for '08 or not. That reason is the team owners, the guys that are writing the checks to build these things. If they're comfortable with scaling up and pushing a little harder and eliminating [the original plan], we'd welcome it with open arms, for sure. But we also don't want to force them into that decision."

Exploring all options

Driver Kyle Petty made several interesting comments in the infield media center Friday, not the least of which was his mention that Petty Enterprises is talking with the same potential investor that Evernham Motorsports is. Petty comfirmed that his family's racing operation has held discussions with George Gillette, owner of the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League.

Gillette attended the recent races at Las Vegas and Bristol at the invitation of Evernham, who has said he may take Gillette on as a part-owner. Petty said only that "we are exploring a number of different options" that could help their own operation flourish.