NASCAR explains Waltrip’s Daytona penalty

NASCAR VP of Competition Robin Pemberton explained the penalty to Michael Waltrip’s truck and addressed the issue of what, if anything, officials will do next for the next restrictor-plate race (at Talladega in April).

Waltrip won the truck race last week at Daytona but part of his rear spoiler broke on the last lap. Waltrip won but NASCAR later penalized his car owner 25 points (the team had earned 47 points for the win, including bonus points) and fined the team’s crew chief $25,000 for the incident. NASCAR penalized Waltrip’s team for violating:

Here’s what Pemberton had to say about the issue, especially since a series spokesman had said after the race that night the spoiler appeared to break because of a parts failure:

“It failed and then there were parts of the spoiler that didn’t meet specifications. It had to maintain 3/16 of an inch thickness throughout the spoiler and it didn’t. It didn’t meet all the specs it needed to meet. And, by the way, it wasn’t at 65 degrees (since it was broken). All of those things added into it.’’

That it didn’t meet minimum thickness specifications was not a result of something unique happening on the track, Pemberton said. He noted how the truck had not hit the wall or been damaged in that area during the race.

“Whether it was an honest mistake or you don’t know, but it definitely did not meet the spec and you wouldn’t have known until after it failed.’’

Pemberton said series officials were aware after inspecting the spoiler at the track after that race that it had not met specs. Hampton Roads