(By Greg Engle)
Posted: Friday,May 22nd, 2009
(Reid Spencer, Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service)
CONCORD, N.C.–Carl Long and wife and car owner DeeDee Long have appealed the record penalties levied against their race team for an engine infraction discovered after last Saturday’s Sprint Showdown, the qualifying event for the Sprint All-Star Race.
Long, who works for Front Row Motorsports and spots for driver Tony Raines in the Nationwide Series when he’s not racing on his own, will be allowed to work NASCAR events pending the appeal, which will be heard June 2.
NASCAR suspended Carl and DeeDee Long and crew chief Charles Swing for 12 weeks each for an oversized engine used in practice for the Showdown.
Long changed engines before the race, and NASCAR, according to its rules, took the engine removed from the car to its research and development center in Concord, N.C., for inspection. When the engine was found to exceed the maximum allowable 358-cubic-inch displacement, NASCAR imposed the suspensions, docked Carl Long 200 championship points, DeeDee Long 200 owner points and fined Swing $200,000.
“The rules are 358 cubic inches and ours is 358.17 cubic inches,” Long said in a statement released Thursday. “The .17 is as wrong as if it would have been 400 cubic inches. This engine is 50 horsepower less than top teams, but it was all that could be afforded. I would have never knowingly went to the race track with a big engine! This suspension has not only stopped me from racing, it has also hurt me with my everyday job. It’s hard to make a living working at the racetrack when NASCAR will not let you in.”
To the sanctioning body, the small fraction above the tolerance is not a mitigating factor.
“Three fifty-eight in the rule book is the engine limit,” said NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton. “Any number that’s bigger than 358.0 … that’s it. That’s what we do, and that’s why we have an appeals process. Sometimes they get overturned, and sometimes they don’t.”
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