NASCAR confiscates Robby Gordon’s rear axle housing

UPDATE Sprint Cup Series owner/driver Robby Gordon says he will appeal NASCAR penalties levied against his Robby Gordon Motorsports team May 27. Gordon was penalized 50 owner and 50 driver points while crew chief Kirk Almquist was fined $50,000 and placed on probation until Dec. 31.

“The bottom line is we were no more ‘body yawed’ than anybody else," Gordon said May 30, “even though our rear end had more toe.

“We … pulled our right-side trailing arm forward and our left-side trailing arm backwards. We fit the template on the right side before the race. So we aren’t doing anything funny there; there was no advantage."

Gordon, 40, said the rear axle measurement was one degree outside the NASCAR limit, and said he felt the penalty was “excessive" for the infraction.

“We missed the one-degree rule by one degree, but we missed … off the frame rails, which gives us the amount of yaw that we get in our cars," he said.

“In this economy and these times, I think they need to re-evaluate it. Just like the Carl Long deal. That’s ridiculous. Carl doesn’t build his engines."

05/26/09 NASCAR kept the rear axle housing of Robby Gordon's car following the Coca-Cola 600 and will do further inspections of it this week at its Research and Development Center, NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said Monday night. If there are any penalties to Gordon and his Robby Gordon Motorsports team, they will be announced later this week, Tharp said. Gordon finished third in the rain-delayed race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. SceneDaily