Nationwide probations removed for logano, stewart?

Question

since the penalties were handed down to the 18 and 20 nationwide teams for "magnetgate," joe and jd gibbs have held that the drivers should not have been penalized and that they were going to work at getting the drivers' penalties removed. in total, seven crew members were suspended indefinitely, the crew chiefs fined $50,000 each, 150 owners points were deducted from both teams, and both teams were put on probation. as for the drivers, logano and stewart each lost 150 nationwide championship points and put on probation in that series until the end of the year.

according to the article below on nascar.com, jgr appealed ONLY the driver probation portion of all the penalties handed down, they did NOT appeal even the loss of driver championship points. even though neither driver is in contention for the championship, the loss of those points impacts the winnings they will receive at the end of the year. today, the racing commission released their decision and that was to remove the probation portion from the drivers, and leave all other penalties intact, including those regarding the driver championship points.

here's the article: http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/headlines/bg/09/03/jlogano.tstewart.penalties.overturned/index.html

the questions:

1) do you think removing the driver probations was the right thing to do?

2) do you think jgr did not appeal the driver points loss because neither driver is in contention for the championship, because they felt that might make it harder to get the probations removed, or both?

3) what do you think of jgr's decision not to appeal any other part of the penalties?

Answer 1

1) Yeah I think it was the right thing to do unless they could prove that either one of them were the ones that actually put the magnets there or helped conspire to do so.

2) I do think if either Joey or Tony was in contention he would have appealed the driver points loss. He would have been crazy not to.

3) Joe Gibbs in my opinion is a very classy man and is a very proud man and what his employee's did embarrassed him and his team. He has to answer to alot of bigtime sponsors that pay alot of money to him that dont want to be linked with cheaters. To me he is saying Im not going to tolerate people who skirt the rules and damage his reputation. I applaud him for that. I agree with him not to appeal any other part of the penaltys.

I hope I answered the question right, its late for me.

Answer 2

1) Yes, I think it was, since it had absolutely nothing to do with them.

2) I think that JGR didn't appeal the rest because they knew that they did wrong (well, those who did it that is.) It was a bad decision on the ones who were at fault! Who do they think they'd fool!

3) See my answer to the 2nd part.

GREAT question.... I hadn't see the article yet! Thanks for bringing it to our attention!

For once Nascar got it right! Penalize the team... not the driver... for something the team did! (Yeah... I know the driver is part of the team... but this is obviously not anything to do with them. Urks me when Nascar takes away driver points when it's obvious they had nothing to do with it! .... Somethings, I'd say yeah throw the book at all of them... but not something like this!)

Answer 3

1)  As much as it sucks, it's a team sport, I feel that the driver probation's should have stayed in place even though they didn't do anything wrong.  Any other time, the driver probation's would have stayed in place.

2) Yeah, the probation's would have been tougher to remove.  They were smart at going for just a little bit vs trying to get more removed.

3)  They done the right thing not appealing the other penalties.  If you do the crime, you need to pay the fine and do the time.

Answer 4

1. Yes. The infraction happened while in post-race dyno testing. The drivers were nowhere near the cars.

2. Yes, you said it.

3. Smart move. Gets his drivers off probation.

Answer 5

Was it right to remove the probation from the drivers? I don't know. Pi**ed off driver = team that will think twice about doing anything stupid again. That might be NASCARS motive behind that decision making in the first place.But, I am glad they did. They didn't deserve it, and probably knew nothing about it to begin with.

You answered the second part of your question. That's probably exactly why.

I think they were smart for not trying to appeal anything else. They also knew a punishment was in order, and pursued the issue themselves. I believe I read that JGR fired some people also. I don't think it was taken lightly there.

Answer 6

I don't think Carl Edwards and Martin Truex should have been punished for something they were not even aware of either. I think both Tony and Logano should not be penalized for something the crew chief did. NASCAR is a lot like the NCAA. They end up punishing the wrong people.

Answer 7

I think getting it dropped for the drivers is a  good thing cause they probably didn't know about it, and if they did then they got lucky this time!

My guess is they didn't appeal the points loss because they aren't in contention for the championship cause it doesn't really matter that much in that case.

I think jgr knew they had screwed up and got caught so they didn't appeal the rest, I also don't think they didn't do anything more than what other teams have tried at one time or another they all try to see how far they can push it, jgr just got caught this time. You know that old saying "you mess with fire you get burnt" well they did this time and now they have to pay the price, end of story!