#26/66 Shocks Banned? UPDATE: NASCAR has banned the special shocks Jimmy Spencer and Todd Bodine have been using over the summer(Winston Salem Journal)(9-3-2001) UPDATE: Because of Derrick Finley’s ingenuity, there’s a new provision in NASCAR’s rule book. Finley, team engineer and shock specialist on Jimmy Spencer’s team, built a set of shocks with a much larger main shaft. But he only got to use them once — during qualifying at Michigan last month. NASCAR officials quickly changed the rules to keep them from being used again. Spencer qualified 18th at Michigan, but Finley said the car would have been faster with chassis adjustments. The shocks are designed to allow the body of the car to move lower on the track, which would make it run faster. “The concept worked, and it wasn’t illegal at the time,” Finley said. Finley spent a week finding seals and other parts to use with his new shocks, but now they’re just sitting in a box in the team’s hauler. “It’s disappointing,” he said.(Atlanta Journal Constitution)(9-8-2001) (9-7-2001)
