Motorsports

Helton's stance on cheating stiffens

Sanctioning body president Mike Helton says, "You should not depend on NASCAR's traditional reactions" to cheating.

By BRANT JAMES
Published March 21, 2005

HAMPTON, Ga. - NASCAR president Mike Helton issued a stern warning during the Nextel Cup prerace drivers meeting at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, saying the league will "do whatever we have to do to balance the risk against the reward" for teams that break rules.

Las Vegas winner Jimmie Johnson and runnerup Kyle Busch were penalized 25 points each and their crew chiefs fined and suspended after their cars failed postrace inspections last week. Kevin Harvick was also sanctioned and his crew chief suspended for using an illegal fuel cell in qualifying.

Saying fines, points deductions and suspensions have not had the desired effect, Helton hinted taking away race results could be the next step, saying, "Everything is on the table as NASCAR's options.

"You should not depend on NASCAR's traditional reactions to incidents that occur after a race when you don't (conform to specifications)," he said. "What we're hearing from last week and what we're reading and in conversations, there's a lot of discussion about "we'd be willing to do this, to do that."'

All passed inspection Sunday.

Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus , is basing his Tuesday appeal of his two-race suspension on a claim that the No.48 Chevrolet failed to meet height specifications because a part broke. Helton said such claims would be assessed on an individual basis.

"Every situation, we value it out based on what all happens, whether mechanically or the human factor," he said.

EARLY EXIT: The race was red-flagged early when Casey Mears spun on the backstretch on the first lap, starting a 10-car wreck that collected six-time Atlanta victor Bobby Labonte and the winners of six driver titles in Jeff Gordon , Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth .

"The rest of the day all we could do was make some laps, burn some gas and wear out the tires," Kenseth said. "There's nothing you can really do."

Replays initially suggested Scott Riggs bumped Mears from behind, but the second-year Cup driver said he was "probably 3 feet behind him the whole time."

"I saw (Mears) and (Mike Bliss ) go up there and get real close and I think it took the air off of Casey and he got loose," said Riggs, who finished ninth. "As soon as I saw it, I jumped out of the gas and got on the binders pretty hard and backed up away from it and was lucky enough to miss it all."

TOUGH DAY: Kurt Busch and his No.97 Ford team have earned a reputation as a resilient bunch the past two seasons, but trouble came in droves for the defending series champion on Sunday.

It's not that Busch didn't give it a game try. He sustained front end damage and a flat tire and restarted 35th after being caught up in the first wreck. He worked his way back to 11th by Lap 33, was running fifth 15 laps later when another tire blew. Busch hit the wall on Lap 158 and had to take the car behind the wall when the tire shredded and ripped the fender again. Busch returned in 37th position, 20 laps down on Lap 180 and finished 32nd, dropping from first to fourth in the standings.

[Last modified March 21, 2005, 01:50:19]