Team owner Rick Hendrick says he’s “looking forward” to appealing the penalties that NASCAR issued to the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet and crew chief Chad Knaus on Wednesday.
NASCAR penalized the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team 25 driver and owner points for illegal “C-posts” and suspended Knaus and car chief Ron Malec for six weeks. Both men are allowed to stay with the team during the appeal.
“Based on what the outcome was I’m looking forward to getting it reversed,” Hendrick said at Phoenix International Raceway on Saturday. "I’m kind of puzzled with the whole series of events. I’m just glad we have a procedure where we can have an appeal process.”
Hendrick said the No. 48 team ran the same C-posts “at every restrictor plate race in 2011 and it’s been to the tech center a couple of times." But when the team initially rolled out its Daytona 500 car, it never made it to the inspection process.
“That’s what’s hard to understand — it just doesn’t make it to the grid after they’ve seen it so many times," Hendrick said. "We’ll get to all sit down away from the place and lay it all out, then see what some independent folks say.”
As of Saturday afternoon, a date with the National Stock Car Racing Commission had yet to be set for the appeal. Both parties were hoping for a meeting next week.
