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Roush may appeal against penalties

Roush Racing could appeal against the penalties handed to them this week after Matt Kenseth's car failed technical inspection after qualifying for the Daytona 500

While the team are not denying that Kenseth's Ford Fusion was in breach of the rules, they feel that the penalties handed out were too extreme.

One of the wheel wells on Kenseth's car was not sealed as it should have been, and this resulted in his 11th-fastest qualifying time being taken away.

In addition to Kenseth having to start one of Thursday's grid-deciding Gatorade Duels, the team have been docked 50 driver and owner points, and his crew chief Robbie Reiser has been fined $50,000 and banned for four races.

Team boss Jack Roush said: "I respect and accept NASCAR's decision that the car was out of compliance as it was inspected after Sunday's qualifying attempt.

"I feel certain, however, that there was no intention on Robbie's part to sidestep any NASCAR rule.

"We at Roush Racing are determined to abide by all of NASCAR's mandates and we are committed to avoid any future embarrassments which are within our control."

Roush added that the team's president Geoff Smith is evaluating whether the team should appeal the penalty.

Smith said: "The extreme harshness of the penalty surprises me given NASCAR's recent history of imposing lesser penalties on habitual offenders engaged in radically more flagrant rule offences.

"For that reason, I am likely to recommend that we appeal the penalty assessment, although I have some more studying to do before I make that official."

Reiser said that the cap on the wheel well fell off during Kenseth's qualifying run.

"I understand NASCAR has a set of rules and we have to abide by them," he said. "It's ultimately my responsibility to make sure we do that.

"It was my job to ensure the cap on the wheel well was properly secured, but it came off during our qualifying run and we ended up outside of the rules because of it."

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