BUSTED!

On Friday the 24 and 48 cars of Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson failed inspection before qualifying practice. Apparantly they were working in the gray area on the front fenders and NASCAR said no way. Both cars were parked for the day and not allowed to practice or qualify. They were placed in the back of the field for thier starting postions.

NASCAR usually announces it's penalties on Tuesday or Wednesday the following week. It will be interesting to see what happens. Earlier this year, NASCAR set a precidence by penalizing the 8 team of Dale Earnhardt, Jr $100,000, 100 driver and owner points and suspending Dales crew cheif, Tony Eury Jr, for 6 races. We should expect nothing less than this as NASCAR has made it clear that you DO NOT mess with the Car of Tommorrow. We are talking about Hedrick Motorsports though, so don't be surprised if the penalty is lighter.

Gordon's crew cheif, Steve Letarte, is basically a first time offender, but Johnson's crew cheif, Chad Knause is on about his 3rd strike. I wouldn't be surprised if Knaus' penalties are worse.