Officials put crew chiefs on guard for further sanctions

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR vice president for corporate communications Jim Hunter said on Thursday at Daytona International Speedway that suspended crew chiefs should stay away from the racetrack, or risk further sanctions.

On Tuesday NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France spoke on the sanctioning body's weekly teleconference regarding reports that all three crew chiefs who were under suspension at the time -- Tony Eury Jr. of DEI and Chad Knaus and Steve Letarte of Hendrick Motorsports -- had attended last weekend's event at New Hampshire International Speedway.

France said he had just come from a meeting with NASCAR president Mike Helton and that "we would be addressing that very shortly."

Heavy hitter

Brian France said that NASCAR isn't afraid to levy harsher penalties if need be.

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Hunter said no further announcements were forthcoming on the subject, but that Knaus and Letarte, who are suspended for four more races after Saturday night's Pepsi 400, should take heed.

"I think Brian made it pretty clear what we've always wanted to do, when we suspended crew chiefs, was that the crew chiefs could not be in the garage or on pit road," Hunter said. "We have never tried to police crew chiefs being in the grandstands, being in a motor coach outside the racetrack, or things of that nature."

It was reported that Knaus and Letarte attended team meetings somewhere on the track grounds during the weekend, and in a post-race report, Earnhardt acknowledged spotting Eury on a viewing mound outside the track's second turn.

"Brian's point was that going forward, we will make it real clear to the crew chiefs that that's not acceptable," Hunter said. "And I think the crew chiefs now know where we stand, going forward."

Hunter said the edict was not put down in writing, but "was understood."

"They know," Hunter said. "Neither one of the Hendrick guys are here this weekend and they don't plan to be -- they understand. And as far as what [France] said about ramping-up the suspensions, if they don't understand, maybe we'll have to add some weeks onto the suspensions.

"We'll leave our option open to do that, and he said we would do it if we thought we needed to."

Evernham Motorsports' driver Elliott Sadler said he agreed with NASCAR's get-tough policy, based on his organization's reaction to all three of its crew chiefs being suspended at the beginning of this season.

"I know when our crew chiefs got suspended from Daytona they had to pretty much go home -- they could not be on the grounds of the racetrack," Sadler said. "I think you need to keep them at home and on no property the racetrack owns. I don't think they need to be around anywhere with communication with their teams -- that's part of being suspended. Keep on escalating the fines. They'll get their attention one day.

"You've got to do something. It doesn't look like points are working and suspensions aren't working. I do like what NASCAR is doing. They keep going up and as a driver I want to know that everybody is on legal stuff every time I go to the track."

Roush Fenway Racing crew chief Robbie Reiser also felt NASCAR's wrath during Speedweeks 2007 via a similar four-race suspension. Reiser worked at the shop and stayed away from the facilities -- including California Speedway, where his driver, Matt Kenseth, won.

"The reason we did what we did when we were in our suspension was because our team was structured to the point that one man doesn't make a difference here," Reiser said. "All the guys work together and if one guy is missing this team ain't going to fall apart -- it can continue on. We just changed the direction and the way we were running our team and spent the four weeks using it at the shop. That's the bottom line on how we handled it and the reason we did."

Reiser said it all comes down to the definition of suspension.

"With the way NASCAR is policing that and the way those guys are structuring it -- they're structuring it in a way that NASCAR is allowing them to do that. If NASCAR's going to allow the suspensions to work the way they are, then those guys are doing the right thing," Reiser said. "They're trying to make their teams competitive and working within what NASCAR's called a suspension. All we can do is come into this garage and operate under the rules NASCAR has given us -- and if NASCAR allows a suspension to operate that way, then so be it."