We've all heard the "Take no prisoners" saying, I don't know where it came from, probably something to do with the military some time ago, who cares? At any rate, NASCAR has jumped out early in the season using that attitude with those who have a penchant for getting ahead by breaking the rules.
The humorous part of this, is that it's usually the guys that you don't think would do such a thing. Jimmie Johnson? Chad Knaus? America's NASCAR racing heroes? (Albeit Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has fallen by the wayside so far this season) The sanctioning body took Johnson out of the points lead with the 25 point reduction because his car failed the post race inspection, it was too low, and it had dropped down since it passed the pre-race inspection. The team said a bolt broke. Oh well, bolts tend to break when they are sawed nearly in half to begin with. The lower the car, the better the aerodynamics allowing it to cut through the air quicker than the other cars at the correct height that have more air going under them, slowing them down. So Johnson got docked 25 points as did his team owner Rick Hendrick, and Knaus got suspended for a number of events, although, during appeal of the suspension, he will still be doing his duties at the track.
Johnson qualified third at Atlanta, turning in a speed over 193 miles per hour, enjoying the efforts of Knaus as long as he can. What goes around usually comes around, Johnson will get his in the long run, and these guys usually find out the hard way that crime doesn't pay. When NASCAR finds them errant, they tend to watch them very closely for the rest of the season.
Johnson's teammate, rookie Kyle Busch, who finished second in the Las Vegas event to Johnson, was fined and docked 25 driver and another 25 owner points for Hendrick Motorsports. His crew chief, Alan Gustafson, was also fined heavily and suspended for two weeks like his counterpart Knaus. Gustafson was nailed for having quarter panels to high during post-race inspection, not that I can see what harm that would do? Seems like it would be detrimental to the car to have them too high rather than lower? At any rate, rules are rules, and Gustafson broke one of them.
Kevin Harvick, the other bad boy of NASCAR who got nailed in the same NASCAR hail storm, got busted before the event, his crew chief set up a crooked fuel system allowing him to qualify the racecar with less fuel, meaning less weight. It wasn't a very bright move, and crew chief Todd Berrier got a hefty fine and suspension for his shenanigans. The problem there is that driver Kevin Harvick also got nailed with a 25 point reduction in driver's points as well as team owner Richard Childress also getting hammered with a 25 point reduction. Berrier isn't appealing his suspension; they have already replaced him with engineer Scott Miller during his ridiculously harsh 4 week suspension. Team owner Richard Childress said he'd never won an appeal in his 32 years of racing, so why drag it out for nothing. The fans, teams and sponsors have all clamored loudly at NASCAR expressing their displeasure.
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