NASCAR penalizes Carl Edwards for post Las Vegas race inspection failure

Associated Press
Published: March 5, 2008

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Carl Edwards was docked 100 points Tuesday, and stripped of the 10 bonus points he earned for winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in NASCAR’s toughest punishment to date for infractions on its Car of Tomorrow.
Edwards moved into the points lead for the first time in his career with Sunday’s victory in Las Vegas. But his race-winning Ford failed inspection when NASCAR discovered the cover was missing from his oil tank.
In addition to Edwards’ penalty, crew chief Bob Osborne was fined $100,000 and suspended six weeks, and Jack Roush was docked 100 owner points.
The penalty was expected to be severe as NASCAR has shown an intolerance toward any modifications to the car it spent years developing and began using full time this season. And the infraction already had slight precedent: NASCAR suspended five Nationwide Series crew chiefs two weeks ago because their oil tank covers were simply loose.
Edwards’ cover was actually off the tank, with many competitors grumbling its absence gave the car additional downforce.
Because NASCAR does not typically strip teams of victories, the penalty did the closest thing to it. Under a tweak made last season to the championship Chase, drivers earn 10 bonus points for every victory earned during the 26-race “regular season.”
Those points are used to seed the 12-man field for the Chase. Before Tuesday’s announcement, Edwards already had earned 20 points.
With the 100-point penalty, Edwards dropped from the top of the standings to seventh.