JGR Nationwide crew chiefs suspended

NASCAR officials discovered the team deliberately added magnetic spacers to the throttle pedal stop to prevent if from going wide-open when their two cars were tested for power on the chassis dyno, following last weekend's race where they finished third and seventh.

As a result of the findings, crew chiefs for the No. 18 and 20 JGR cars, Jason Ratcliff and Dave Rogers have been suspended indefinitely from NASCAR, and fined US $50,000 each. They were said to be in breach of four different sections of the Nationwide Series rulebook according to the official statement from the racing body.

The teams' drivers for that weekend, Tony Stewart and Joey Logano, were both docked 150 points, although neither of them is racing for the championship. However the No. 20 team took a major blow in the fight for the owner's title as they had their lead cut by 150 points, while the No. 20 team was also docked the same ammount.

Both teams' car chiefs and engine tuners were also placed on indefinite suspensions as well as a crew member from the No. 18 team. Adding to the penalties, both teams will remain under probation for the rest of the season, with JGR officials saying they would not appeal the penalties levied.

Team owner Joe Gibbs apologized for the incident through a statement and said they would take further measures internally against those involved, although they expressed their disagreement on putting their drivers under probation, as they had no bearing on the whole issue.

"What we have determined is that these individuals involved used extremely poor judgment in attempting to alter the results of NASCAR's dyno test following Saturday's Nationwide Series race in Michigan," Gibbs said.

"Although in no way was anything done that might have altered the race outcome, these JGR employees attempted to circumvent the NASCAR rule book and that is unacceptable.

"We take full responsibility and accept the penalties NASCAR has levied against us today. We had come to the conclusion that we would add to any NASCAR imposed penalties with the minimum being suspension for the remainder of the season for those involved, including our two Nationwide Series crew chiefs.

"There will also be an additional monetary fine beyond the amount announced by NASCAR earlier today, which will be the responsibility of those involved.

"We are, however, disappointed that NASCAR chose to place our drivers on probation, as they had no knowledge or involvement of this incident."

In a separate announcement, NASCAR also fined Chip Ganassi Racing crew chief Donnie Wingo US $25,000 for a technical rule violation relating to an improperly attached weight in Reed Sorenson's car during the Sprint Cup series race at Michigan last Sunday.