Commission votes unanimously to overturn penalty on Kyle Busch's car after Kansas win

DAVID POOLE

The Charlotte Observer

Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2007

A three-member panel of the National Stock Car Racing Commission announced Wednesday it has voted unanimously to overturn a $10,000 penalty assessed against Michael Bumgarner after the Busch Series race at Kansas.

Bumgarner is crew chief on the No. 5 Chevrolets driven by Kyle Busch. After Busch won that race, NASCAR ruled that unapproved modifications had been made to the plenum area on the car’s intake manifold.

Hendrick Motorsports officials objected strongly the next day, saying NASCAR had taken the same type of manifold from the No. 5 car at a Busch race at Dover to examine along with several others as better ways to measure that part were being devised for 2008. The team said it had not been told there was a problem and that the part used at Kansas was identical.

While the commission reiterated that the fact a part has passed inspection one or more times doesn’t make it legal if a violation simply went undetected, in this case it found that the manifold in question did conform to applicable NASCAR-approved gauges and other measuring devices.

Therefore, the penalty against Bumgarner was thrown out.

"Obviously, we're pleased with the decision,” team owner Rick Hendrick said. “The team prepared a race-winning car that met every rule in the book. It's important that our fans, our sponsors and our competitors know that's the case.”

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