Suspended chiefs banned from tracks

On Tuesday NASCAR chairman Brian France had already warned teams that they would act on the subject of suspended crew chiefs actually attending races.

Last weekend, Dale Earnhardt's suspended crew chief Tony Eury Jr, was spotted in a motorhome at New Hampshire just outside the track, from where he was said to be in permanent contact with his team.

NASCAR vice president of corporate communications Jim Hunter said at Daytona on Thursday that they will police that suspended crew chiefs don't get around their penalties and serve them properly.

"We're going to handle this the way we've handled it in the past, with (Nextel Cup Series director) John Darby and (vice president of competition) Robin Pemberton informing the crew chiefs," Hunter said. "Instead of 'Yeah, you can do that,' it's 'No, you can't do that any more.'

"We want to take away the perception that they're circumventing the penalty, that the penalty doesn't mean anything because they're still on site. With people thinking that this is a circumvention of the penalty, the next step is, 'What do you do about it?' "

In the past, other suspended crew chiefs used to watch the race from the grandstands and have telephone or even radio contact with their teams, but NASCAR's new policy will not allow that anymore.

Hunter also asked for support from the fans and the media to help them police that suspensions are rightfully served by infractors.

"The old days are gone," Hunter added. "Everybody likes to write all these stories about how it's part of NASCAR to get around the rules and all that sort of thing. There's plenty of areas for guys to still be innovative and creative without breaking the rules."