How to Lose a 3400 Pound Race Car
The No. 25 Chevrolet Hendrick Motorsports brought to New Hampshire International Speedway as the primary Nextel Cup car for Brian Vickers was in NASCAR’s possession Friday after it failed inspection five times.“This was a brand new body that had never been raced,” said Doug Duchardt, vice president of development for the Hendrick team. “We learned of a measurement issue during the inspection process and made attempts to correct it. But, after several tries, we decided to forfeit the car (to NASCAR) and go with our backup.”
Can we presume this is the first casualty in the race for the “After Thought Cup,” otherwise known as 11th place in the final NEXTEL Cup standings and it’s one million dollar prize?
Not very likely considering Vickers is so far back from 11th place at the moment. The biggest question I have is why the forfeiture of the car? Why not roll out the backup and push the disqualified #25 into the hauler? Something is fishy in Loudon. And in the Hendrick’s shop.
Apparenty they are so hard pressed for cash they can’t afford a supply of NASCAR approved templates in the Fab shop. NOT! I expect more on this later in the week as the real story why the car is now in the possession of NASCAR comes out.
He’s my bet: When Chevy tested their ‘06 version at Atlanta the program manager, in so many words said, the test was a disaster. And that someone had better [avatar:http://cranialcavity.net/files/butt-head.gif]pull their head out[/avatar]. What if, and this is pure speculation, what if Hendrick used the #25 as a test mule of the ‘06 version and attempted to slide it by the template inspectors?
As I said, the forfiture is suspect on a number of levels and more will come out on this story.
NASCAR, Auto Racing
I don’t know about the 2006 model thing, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Hendrick group is using one of their teams on the outside of the chase as a test team. Trying to see what will work and what won’t, rules wise. Poor Brian didn’t seem like he had a clue about it though, but we all know drivers don’t always know what’s going on. Just ask Reed Sorenson. They need to figure something about with the Chevy’s though. That test was horrible and they need to get to work.
I had posted the Chevy test results previously but was short on time when posting this entry and couldn’t locate the post. Joe Gibbs conducted the test and it wasn’t promising.
Here is a section of the story