Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 2, 1993 TAG: 9307020067
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
NASCAR levied the same suspension against Joe Hendrick, the team's owner. Hendrick is the father of Charlotte auto dealer Rick Hendrick, the driving force behind Hendrick Motorsports, which fields three Winston Cup teams. There was no fine for either Schrader or Joe Hendrick.
"Bypassing the restrictor plate is a very serious offense in all of our eyes," NASCAR Winston Cup director Gary Nelson said during a news conference Thursday afternoon. "A team that bypasses the plate should be suspended. The reason for the restrictor plate is safety."
As he left the track Thursday, Schrader said he didn't know what his team had done to his car.
"You'll have to ask some of the guys who work on it," he said. "I'm just driving it. But we're racing this weekend."
Schrader and his team are expected to compete in the Pepsi 400 because they have appealed the suspensions to the National Stock Car Racing Commission and a hearing is not expected until Tuesday or Wednesday, NASCAR spokesman Chip Williams said.
Inspectors discovered the violation during a routine inspection after first-round qualifying for Saturday's Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway. Schrader had qualified 15th, but his speed was disallowed and he will have to requalify during a second round of time trials at 1 p.m. today.
The four-race suspension is scheduled to begin with the inaugural Winston Cup race at New Hampshire International Speedway on July 11 and also would include races at Pocono, Talladega and Watkins Glen, Williams said.
A four-race suspension would destroy any hopes Schrader might have for the 1993 Winston Cup championship, because he would not earn any points from those races. Schrader is seventh in the points standings, with nine top 10 finishes this year.
Nelson called the alterations Hendrick's team made to the carburetor "very innovative" and "very creative."
He said illegal air passages were drilled in the carburetor, which sits above the restrictor plate, and the intake manifold, which is below the plate, to allow extra air to bypass the plate and flow into the engine.
The illegal passages in the carburetor were designed to direct the extra air through the stud holes of the restrictor plate and into the illegal passages in the manifold, Nelson said.
The net result, he said, was that "it allowed the motor to get more air that doesn't pass through the [holes in the] restrictor plate." And that means greater horsepower and faster speeds.
"It wasn't a lot, considering where they ended up [in qualifying], but it was definitely their intention to bypass the restrictor plate," Nelson said. "My personal opinion is that I think they were testing this today to see if they could get away with it, and if they did, they would run smaller studs [in the race] if this all worked out."
"It was something our inspectors stumbled onto when taking the carburetor off after the qualifying run had been made," he said. "One of our guys noticed people on the team acting a little funny and looked a little closer and saw holes in the carburetor that were well-hidden. And there was no other reason to drill those holes but to bypass the restrictor plate."
Nelson said that when he talked to team members, "There wasn't a lot to be said. My question to them was, `Are you seeing the same thing I'm seeing?' And their answer was yes.
"It was not blatant, but it was intentional. If it was blatant, we would have caught them a lot easier."
At first glance, the carburetor and plate assembly "looked pretty much unaltered," he said. "There was nothing to set off any signal that would make it look any different than any other."
After the discovery, Nelson said, inspectors closely examined the same parts on all the other cars and found nothing amiss.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB