NASCAR announced that penalties have been issued to the crew chief, owner and driver for the #25 NASCAR Nationwide Series team due to rule violations found on June 26 during post-qualifying inspection at last weekend’s event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. In addition to having the qualifying time disallowed for the #25 car, crew chief Paul Richmond has been fined $10,000 and suspended for the next four NASCAR Nationwide Series events, suspended from NASCAR until July 28, 2010, and placed on probation until Dec. 31, for violating Sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing); 12-4-J (any determination by NASCAR officials that the race equipment used in the event does not conform to NASCAR rules), 20A-15 (NASCAR reserves the right to have all cars use the same brand of fuel in a given event) and 20A-15.2C (the gasoline must not be blended with alcohols, ethers, or other oxygenates and it must not be blended with aniline or its derivatives, nitro compounds or other nitrogen-containing compounds) of the 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series Rule Book. Team owner Bert Sellers Jr. was penalized with the loss of 50 NASCAR Nationwide Series championship owner points while driver Peyton Sellers also was docked 50 NASCAR Nationwide Series championship driver points.(NASCAR PR)(6-30-2010)
UPDATE: A statement from Peyton Sellers: “We accept the penalty which NASCAR has issued our race team. The competition department worked closely with us to figure out the issue with our fuel. A small amount of fuel that we used to fire up our car in the shop was accidentally brought to the track and was used to top off the car. We are a new team and are trying hard to make it in the Nationwide Series with a smaller crew. We know mistakes like this cannot be made if we are going to be successful in one of NASCAR’s top series of racing. We have learned a very important and costly lesson but we are going to continue moving forward with my lifelong goal of competing in NASCAR.”(Sellers PR)(7-1-2010)
