Commission rejects appeal on Martin penalty

[Elwood]

Commission rejects appeal on Martin penalty

By MIKE HARRIS, AP Motorsports Writer

 

November 16, 2002

 

 

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) -- Mark Martin's appeal of a 25-point penalty was turned down Saturday, making his bid to overtake Tony Stewart for the Winston Cup championship that much tougher.

 

Martin was docked the points for using an unapproved spring on his Ford in the Nov. 3 race at Rockingham, N.C. His Roush team argued that the infraction was not intentional and that the penalty was too severe.

 

Now Martin will go into the season-closing Ford 400 Sunday 89 points behind leader Stewart. Stewart will win the championship if he finishes 22nd or better on Sunday, no matter what Martin does in the race.

 

Saturday's decision by a three-person panel from the National Stock Car Racing Commission also upheld appeals of team owner Jack Roush's 25 car-owner points penalty and crew chief Ben Leslie's $5,000 fine.

 

The commission issued a statement: ``The spring rule as written is clear. The spring from the No. 6 car did not meet the requirements of the rule. NASCAR acted fairly and consistently in issuing the penalties.''

 

NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said, ``The issue here is the spring must have 4 1/2 coils and the one in question didn't.''

 

The Roush team said that the unapproved spring, which had only 4 3/8 coils, was taken out of the box it came in and put on the car with no intention of getting a performance advantage.

 

After the appeal was filed on Wednesday, Roush team president Geoff Smith said it was decided to appeal because the spring had an ``inconsequential deviation'' that had ``absolutely no effect on the fairness of competition.'' He called the 25-point penalty a ``draconian remedy.'''

 

Following the rejection of the appeal, Smith said, ``This was an unbelievable situation that in a championship hunt, a penalty on a nonperformance issue might come into play.

 

``It will be easier if the 25 points don't make a difference. If they do, you'll have two great, hard working competitors in Mark Martin and Jack Roush penalized twice because of nonperformance issues. Jack will go on, but he'll be heartbroken.''

 

The only recourse left for Roush would be to appeal the panel's decision to Charles D. Strang, the National Stock Car Racing Commissioner, but Smith said, ``We're done.''

 

The appeal was heard by commission chairman George Silberman and commissioners John Capels and John Bishop.