been told that #99-Carl Edwards Ford, which won the Dodge Dealers 400 at Dover International Speedway, was too low on one side of the rear of the car. Supposedly NASCAR will take the car back to its R&D Center in Concord, NC to check it out further, but that they do not consider it as the team altering the COT [Car of Tomorrow] and probably would not be any fines or penalties unless they find something different. Edwards Statement: The worse case would be 25 points, the right rear being low any engineer or crew chief in the garage will tell you that’s the last thing you want, Edwards said. You want the right rear to be high. The only thing I can think of is at the end of the race, Greg came up and gave me a couple of love taps to say good job, good race’ and hopefully they find that that bent the tail of the car down a little bit. There are some braces bent under the decklid so hopefully that’s what it is.(PRN’s Garage Pass) AND #99-Carl Edwards’ race-winning Roush Fenway Racing Ford failed postrace inspection Sunday at Dover International Speedway. The right rear of his car fell below the 1/2-inch tolerance for height, NASCAR said. The victory most likely will stand, but Edwards’ team is expected to be penalized later this week. Team owner Jack Roush said that there were no changes made to the right side of the car and that he believes NASCAR will find the car is bent. He added it was his understanding that the right-rear was 3/8ths of an inch low, which doesn’t make sense to him. Although this is a car of tomorrow entry, the likely penalty does not fall under the tampering-with-COT rules since the structure of the body has not been manipulated. The question NASCAR now will have to answer is what did happen. The sanctioning body is taking the car to its research and development center in Concord, N.C. for further review.(SceneDaily.com)(9-23-2007)
