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On Friday in Richmond, NASCAR's vice president of competition, Robin Pemberton, said that punishment for technical rules violations does not consider intent.
But Joe Gibbs the founder of the team with his name said that intent should matter when meting out punishment. Gibbs has appealed the severe penalties NASCAR has imposed after finding one connecting rod was only 2.7 grams underweight, but, not the finding.
When asked about the background for punishment Pemberton said “Not intent; we don't judge the performance.”
JGR used to build their engines, now they are obtained from Toyota Racing Development which in turn purchased the offending item from a third party. Would NASCAR penalize the third parties?
“At this time we will not and cannot penalize vendors,” said Pemberton. We'd be in it all day long, whether it was a shock that went bad, a spring that collapsed that caused the car low or any of those things. You can concentrate right now on a certain area, because right now it's the height and awareness around an engine part.
“But when you go down that road, there are a million pieces on these cars, and so we choose to go down the path that it's the team's responsibility for quality control, and check on the parts and pieces that they bring and compete with at the racetrack.”
A little while later Gibbs, the triple Super Bowl winning coach, took the penalties personally.
For me personally, in my entire life and every decision or just about every decision I've made -- I felt like intent was very important,” Gibbs said.
“Whether it was somebody doing something in a situation where somebody has done something maybe against me, the first thing I wanted to know is what was their intent? Was it an accident? Was it a mistake or did they purposely try and do something. Intent to me is I think very important.
“In this case, I think that's important to me. This motor and what happened -- there was not an intent to circumvent the rules or to have an unfair competitive advantage. That was very important to me. I think, like I mentioned -- we really value our relationship with NASCAR.”
Most appeals go in favor of NASCAR, but there is a final appeal available to John Middlebrook, a former General Motors executive.
Last year Middlebrook reduced a penalty imposed against the No. 48 team of Jimmie Johnson for an unapproved “C” pillar, the piece which connects the rear of the roof with the body, at Daytona.
But Joe Gibbs the founder of the team with his name said that intent should matter when meting out punishment. Gibbs has appealed the severe penalties NASCAR has imposed after finding one connecting rod was only 2.7 grams underweight, but, not the finding.
When asked about the background for punishment Pemberton said “Not intent; we don't judge the performance.”
JGR used to build their engines, now they are obtained from Toyota Racing Development which in turn purchased the offending item from a third party. Would NASCAR penalize the third parties?
“At this time we will not and cannot penalize vendors,” said Pemberton. We'd be in it all day long, whether it was a shock that went bad, a spring that collapsed that caused the car low or any of those things. You can concentrate right now on a certain area, because right now it's the height and awareness around an engine part.
“But when you go down that road, there are a million pieces on these cars, and so we choose to go down the path that it's the team's responsibility for quality control, and check on the parts and pieces that they bring and compete with at the racetrack.”
A little while later Gibbs, the triple Super Bowl winning coach, took the penalties personally.
For me personally, in my entire life and every decision or just about every decision I've made -- I felt like intent was very important,” Gibbs said.
“Whether it was somebody doing something in a situation where somebody has done something maybe against me, the first thing I wanted to know is what was their intent? Was it an accident? Was it a mistake or did they purposely try and do something. Intent to me is I think very important.
“In this case, I think that's important to me. This motor and what happened -- there was not an intent to circumvent the rules or to have an unfair competitive advantage. That was very important to me. I think, like I mentioned -- we really value our relationship with NASCAR.”
Most appeals go in favor of NASCAR, but there is a final appeal available to John Middlebrook, a former General Motors executive.
Last year Middlebrook reduced a penalty imposed against the No. 48 team of Jimmie Johnson for an unapproved “C” pillar, the piece which connects the rear of the roof with the body, at Daytona.