Well, the summer hasn't been going that great. First, the tragic incident at Daytona. Then, my house was burglarized at the beginning of June. It made me think of all the emails I get about how race teams have had equipment or cars stolen. It also made me think of the fight over Earnhardt's autopsy photos. Generally, I believe in the basic goodness of people, but those two things are making me wonder. It's kind of set a grey cast over the whole season.
Anyway, I'll be updating this page more frequently now that I'm done with the burglary stuff. I'd like to say that anyone out there who's guilty of picking up even a BOLT that doesn't belong to them from a race team's cart should be tarred and feathered.
Dave Fuge, who's the crew chief for the #61 car driven by Tim Sauter, has been suspended indefinitely, and with good reason. He was placed on suspension Tuesday for violations found in the roll cage bars from Saturday night's race at Kentucky Speedway. He was also fined $30,000. The team owner, Stephen Coulter, was fined 60 car owner points, while Sauter lost the same number of driver points. The team's car was dropped to last-place in the final race results, costing it 39 additional points. They didn't lose too much there, because Sauter went out after a crash and orginally finished 30th.
Scary and Un-Necessary
Dave Fuge, who's the crew chief for the #61 car driven by Tim Sauter, has been suspended indefinitely, and with good reason. He was placed on suspension Tuesday for violations found in the roll cage bars from Saturday night's race at Kentucky Speedway. He was also fined $30,000. The team owner, Stephen Coulter, was fined 60 car owner points, while Sauter lost the same number of driver points. The team's car was dropped to last-place in the final race results, costing it 39 additional points. They didn't lose too much there, because Sauter went out after a crash and orginally finished 30th.
The infractions were discovered when NASCAR officials started going over the crashed car the race and found that (drum roll) the roll cage bars had been lightened and had holes drilled into them. Why, you ask? Well, just like the old "swiss cheese" drag racing frames, that would be done to take weight away from that part of the car so it could be added back in other areas, like the left side.
Personally, I think this is totally ridiculous. I usually don't agree with many of NASCAR's fines, and suspensions, but I think these are well deserved. This is not the time to compromise safety. I hope this makes them think a little bit.
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