Edwards penalised, loses points lead

Edwards' car failed the post-race technical inspection after winning the UAW Dodge 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. NASCAR officials found that the lid on the oil tank box was off the car and announced later the car would be taken to their Research and Development facility in Concord, North Carolina.

Following a second more detailed inspection of the No. 99 Roush Fenway Ford, NASCAR confirmed their findings from Sunday and announced that Edwards and his team will be docked 100 points in both the driver and owner standings, plus they have lost their 10 points win bonus towards their Chase seeding.

As a result, Edwards has dropped from first to seventh place in the driver standing, handing the lead back to Kyle Busch. He also faces the loss of his crew chief Bob Osborne for the next six races, which means he will only be back for the first Richmond race at the beginning of May.

Additionally, Osborne has been fined US $100,000 and he will be on probation until the end of the year.

"The bolt holding the lid in place failed in its purpose as a result of vibration harmonics generated by the car and the race track during the race," said Roush Fenway Racing president Geoff Smith after being notified of the penalty.

"The bolt was secure enough to survive 225 miles of practice, perhaps up to 399 of 400 miles of the race and the scrutiny of numerous inspections.

"It's a tough business for any race team to have to pledge $100,000, 100 points and a six-race crew chief suspension as an indemnity payment to NASCAR against a promise forced from us by NASCAR that no bolt will ever fail its purpose under race conditions."

Roush Fenway Racing has not announced whether they will appeal against the penalties or not, but Smith said it is in their best own interests to have Osborne begin serving his penalty immediately.

Chris Andrews, the team's chief engineer, will take over from him at Atlanta next weekend, and will be supported in the pit box on Sunday by Roush Fenway's general manager Robbie Reiser, who served as Matt Kenseth's crew chief until last year.

This is the second time Edwards and his team has been penalized for infractions with the Car of Tomorrow. Last year they were fined and docked points after their winning car failed the post race inspection at Dover in September.