For the second time this Winston Cup season [the other being the #20 Home Depot Chevy at Texas ], NASCAR officials have confiscated a racecar for failure to meet the sanctioning body’s template rules. In pre-event inspection Thursday at Homestead-Miami Speedway for Sunday’s Ford 400, NASCAR took away Kyle Busch’s #60 ditech.com Chevrolet fielded by Hendrick Motorsports when “the car’s body dimensions did not meet NASCAR specifications,” according to Winston Cup director John Darby. Thus, Kyle, 18, the brother of series regular Kurt Busch, will have to wait to make his Winston Cup debut until next season, as Hendrick Motorsports withdrew his entry after the confiscation. A statement from NASCAR said the discrepancy to the car was sizeable enough that “it could not be repaired at the racetrack in a timely and effective manner, necessitating that it be confiscated.” A Hendrick Motorsports spokesperson said the improper dimension was the same “x-measurement” that Tony Stewart’s Chevrolet failed earlier this season at Texas Motor Speedway, when his car was also confiscated.( NASCAR.com )(11-13-2003) UPDATE: Hendrick Motorsports claimed responsibility for its #60 Chevrolet failing to meet NASCAR body specifications, which prompted NASCAR officials to confiscate the car during pre-qualifying inspection on Thursday. “There is a system of checks and balances in place to assure that our cars will meet NASCAR’s specifications,” said Ken Howes, the organization’s competition director. “In this car, we made a late decision to enter the race at Homestead and simply made a mistake as we hurried to prepare. This was certainly not an attempt to circumvent the rules, and I believe everyone understands that.” Kyle Busch, 18, was expected to make his Winston Cup debut with the team in Sunday’s Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Since the team did not have a backup car, Hendrick withdrew the entry and Busch returned home to Charlotte.( ThatsRacin.com )(11-15-2003) UPDATE 2: NASCAR’s decision to confiscate one of Rick Hendrick’s Chevrolets here for failing the same body rules that tripped up Tony Stewart at Texas has provoked questions in the Winston Cup garage, because that car was apparently run twice by Jeff Gordon this season with no complaints from NASCAR. The car confiscated was to be driven by rookie Kyle Busch. Gary DeHart, Busch’s crew chief, said: “After Texas everyone who had cars that were off-set like that a little bit went back and fixed them, and we did too. This particular car we just borrowed last Monday to get Kyle a few laps here. It fit the templates good, but the diagonal measurement didn’t work out. That’s the same problem Tony had at Texas. It wasn’t that far off, but it was off far enough that we understand why NASCAR did what they did. We just decided to run Kyle at Daytona and Las Vegas next year instead. Jeff wrecked the car at Pocono and when it was repaired somebody apparently wasn’t on their game when they did their measurements.”( Winston Salem Journal )(11-16-2003)
