NASCAR had no choice when assessing penalties

Gentlemen, start your jaw-dropping.

Jeff Gordon thought he and his crewmates on the No. 24 Chevrolet he drives for Hendrick Motorsports already had paid a deep enough price for technical violations discovered during initial inspection last Friday at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. After all, both he and fellow Hendrick driver Jimmie Johnson of the No. 48 Chevrolet already had been barred from a key pre-race practice session and sent to near the rear of the 43-car field for the start of last Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350.

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"I think the punishment [last] Friday fit the crime," Gordon had insisted after the race. "I think anything more than that is going to be extremely disappointing, and really kind of a jaw-dropper."

But deep down, Gordon had to know better than to believe the words even as they tumbled out of his own mouth.

After Nextel Cup officials discovered a 10-inch piece of front fender that they believed had been modified illegally on each of the Hendrick Motorsports cars during initial inspection at Infineon, and even after the initial punishments had been assessed the following morning, it was a virtual certainty that more was on the way.

It arrived Tuesday afternoon just before 4 p.m. ET, when NASCAR announced that Gordon and Johnson each were penalized 100 driver championship points, and that their crew chiefs -- Steve Letarte for Gordon and Chad Knaus for Johnson -- have each been fined $100,000, suspended for the next six Nextel Cup Series events, and placed on probation until Dec. 31, 2007.

Rick Hendrick, owner of the No. 24 car, also was penalized 100 car owner championship points -- as was Gordon, who is owner of the No. 48.

Were the penalties fair?

Too little?

Too much?

Well, the fact is that NASCAR had little or no choice but to levy the exact same penalties it laid on driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his No. 8 Chevrolet team for mounting rear-wing brackets illegally on a Car of Tomorrow at Darlington Raceway six weeks earlier. (Continued)