Jayski's NASCAR Archives

Penske crew chiefs back at the track:

After serving their two-race penalties for a rules violation at Texas in April, crew chiefs Paul Wolfe and Todd Gordon are back this weekend, ready to help #2-Brad Keselowski and #22-Joey Logano stop backsliding in Sprint Cup points. They originally were suspended six races and fined $200,000 for cheating, but their suspensions were reduced to only Darlington on May 11 and Charlotte last weekend. Wolfe, last years championship-winning crew chief with Keselowski and the #2 Ford team, said being gone was tougher than he expected. ‘Im a hands-on kind of guy and for me to be able to watch the car in practice and see how it runs around other cars is important’ he said Friday at Dover. ‘Its important to see all that and make decisions on what changes to make. Everyone who stepped up and helped out did a great job and did all that we could ask, but obviously, its just not the same.” Wolfe and Gordon were busted by NASCAR for having ‘unapproved” rear suspension parts on their Ford Fusions. While NASCAR never said the parts were illegal, they said the parts were ‘unapproved” and thus by unspoken definition, illegal. Wolfe is convinced that other teams were working in the same ‘unapproved” area, but is reluctant to say he and his Penske Racing teammates were unfairly targeted. ‘There were probably cars working in that (gray) area’ he said. ‘We feel we got behind on that area last year leading up to the Chase”¦with other teams working in that area. We didnt want to fall behind this year. But I dont think NASCAR was necessarily picking on us. They just happened to find where we were working and didnt agree with it.”( Autoweek )