Hendrick denies attempting to cheat

The front fenders of both the No. 24 and the No. 48 cars fitted NASCAR's templates during the meticulous opening-day inspection at Infineon Raceway, and according to Doug Duchardt, Vice President of Development for Hendrick Motorsports, they complied with the rules within their own interpretation.

"Our understanding was that the cars fit the templates, but they were outside of what [NASCAR] would like to see us in between the templates," Duchardt said.

"I think that the thing for us, from our standpoint, we understand fully the rules around the template, or we felt we understood fully, the rules around the template, however, we felt that we could work between the points on the template and it became clear to us today, and I think to everyone, that that is not acceptable."

Duchardt stated that NASCAR has previously checked their cars in detail, having impounded their winning Cars of Tomorrow five times already. He said they did not get any warning in any of those inspections, regarding the front fenders that were found to be too wide on Friday morning at Infineon.

"We've been fortunate enough to have five of our cars over at the tech center, since we've won the first five COT races," he added. "So, our cars have probably been scrutinized more than any other cars in the garage area after the races and we did not receive any warning in those areas."

"Obviously today NASCAR made a judgment and we understand it. I just feel badly that if that would tarnish the 10 wins and the success we've had this year. I really think that if our organization as a whole has been clicking, we want to try to continue this momentum."

Chad Knaus, crew chief for Jimmie Johnson's car, said the modifications on the front fenders of their cars were not specifically done to enhance performance on a road course, and they were part of their continuous search for more downforce.

"I don't think it is necessarily track dependent," said Knaus. "The thing that you try to do, with any racecar is to make the car as efficient as possible and there was an area there that we though we may be able to find some more front downforce like what everybody wants to do.

"We went into that area, it is what NASCAR seems is not the area that they want us to go and we thought that we could. Obviously we can't and we understand that at this point."

Knaus also denied they were trying to break the rules.

"Obviously it would be irresponsible of us to take excessive risk and put ourselves in this position and we felt like we could work in between those templates," he added. "It was our understanding.

"Obviously we didn't understand that correctly and we found out the hard way. And that's as simple as that. We worked in between the templates and that wasn't okay."

The Chevrolet Impalas SS of Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson have already gone through inspection and were the first two to go on track for Saturday practice at Infineon Raceway.