When Dave Blaney headed to the garage in his #66 Prism Motorsports Toyota after 43 laps [at Auto Club Speedway], NASCAR officials were waiting. Three laps earlier, #55-Michael McDowell drove the other Prism Motorsports car to the garage. The final race report concluded that both cars had engine failures. So why did the sanctioning body confiscate the #66 car? “Because they can,” said Bill Henderson, crew chief of the #66 team and general manager for Prism Motorsports.
Henderson, who has just two cars for the team, was told the car will not be returned until next Saturday ‘Â long after qualifying is over. However, the primary car has the basics of racing ‘Â swaybar, shocks and springs ‘Â that the team simply can’t afford to duplicate on the backup car. Without those necessities, Henderson will not be able to race. Sprint Cup Series director John Darby said he hopes to perform the inspection at Las Vegas in order to return the car to the team in a timely fashion, but that’s hardly a guarantee.
Which begs the question: Is NASCAR attempting to send the message to “start and park” teams ‘Â those that enter a race primarily to collect a check and don’t always try to finish ‘Â not to stink up their show? Prism Motorsports wasn’t the only team that ended their day prematurely Sunday at Fontana.
Joe Nemechek initially parked his car on Lap 27 then mysteriously returned to the track a short time later and ran an additional 27 laps before a “rear gear” failed. Boris Said also went into the garage early, came back out, and then disappeared. Even Aric Almirola, who was driving the #09 Phoenix Racing entry that won at Talladega last year, ended up in the garage after 34 laps with an engine failure.
“It’s one thing to try to race each week,” said the manager of a team that generally finishes among the 40-somethings who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “But I think doing two (teams) to get a check isn’t going to sit very well with NASCAR.” Prism Motorsports pocketed $160,070 for Sunday’s combined effort of 83 laps. #17-Matt Kenseth, who finished seventh, ran the full 500 miles and earned a $161,696 pay day.
Darby said choosing the #66 Toyota as “the random” car was part of “the normal inspection procedure. That particular car stood out given that Blaney qualified fifth and led three laps. “The ‘randomness’ of inspection covers everyone in the field,” Darby said. “The 66 was a car that was very competitive. Yes, he was outside of the top 35, but he was the fastest of the group. He was fifth overall qualifying and he led the race today. We’ve got to make sure that as we fulfill our responsibility to our competitors to make sure that everyone is playing with the same rulebook and adhering to the same rules ‘Â and that means everybody. That car deserves a look at to make sure it’s up to start.” Darby said the sanctioning body cannot try to “outguess the teams” to determine who the start-and-park cars are every weekend.(FoxSports)(2-22-2010)
UPDATE: Phil Parsons didn’t take it personally or consider it a message to start-and-park teams when NASCAR impounded the #66 driven by Dave Blaney following Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Auto Club Speedway. He took it as a compliment. Had Blaney not qualified fifth, led three laps and run in the top 10 for a while before parking 43 laps into the 250-lap event, Parsons doesn’t believe the car would have been a random selection for a full teardown. “If I am them and they are me and they qualified fifth, I may want a little extra look at that car,” said Parsons, the owner of Prism Motorsports that fields the #66 and #55 of Michael McDowell. “We’re fairly new and haven’t been around that much. There aren’t many relatively new teams that are able to do stuff like that. We may be a victim of our own success.” Some might question success. Both Prism cars parked early Sunday, saving the engines and other parts for this week’s race at Las Vegas. Like it or not, that’s the business model some owners have to follow until the economy lightens its grip around the sport. Parsons understands it could gives owners like him a bad name. He also understands that he’s doing everything he can to stay in the sport. “We try to race when we have money to race,” said Parsons, who formed an alliance just before the season to get cars from Michael Waltrip Racing. “We raced Daytona the week before and [McDowell] broke a drive shaft with five laps to go. We’re out there in the market place. It’s just been very difficult to raise money.” Bottom line, when the cars are sponsored Parsons will race them. When they are not he’ll likely park them unless he’s made enough money from days like Sunday to take a chance. “The economics of the thing, the additional cost for an engine, to use the engine for all 500 miles and the amount of tires that it takes to run the rest of the race … it could be astronomical,” Parsons said. “We’re all racers. I know how hard it is for Dave. But we also want to race next week. We have to try to be smart and do what we can with what we have. I’m trying to build this thing. Hopefully, deals like Dave Blaney qualifying fifth opens some eyes.” There are some who believe Parsons is throwing the whole start-and-park philosophy in NASCAR’s face by doing it with two cars, and that NASCAR tossed it back by impounding the 66. That means Blaney, who only had two cars to start with, will have to qualify his backup at Las Vegas unless NASCAR is able to complete its inspection in Vegas in time. That likely won’t happen. What makes this difficult on the 66 team is the backup won’t be nearly as equal to the primary as might be the case on large, well-established teams.(in part from ESPN)(2-22-2010)
