NASCAR Cup Series

NASCAR fines Braun Racing crew chiefs

Published Jun. 9, 2010 10:27 p.m. ET

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NASCAR on Wednesday suspended the crew chiefs and tire specialists for Braun Racing's two Nationwide Series entries for actions during last week's race in Nashville.

Stuart Cooper, crew chief for the No. 10 car driven by Tayler Malsam, and Trip Bruce, crew chief for the No. 38 car driven by Jason Leffler, were suspended for the next two Nationwide events and fined $25,000.

Tire specialists Sean Whisenhunt and Kevin Bellicourt were also suspended for the next two events. All four were also placed on probation through the end of the year. Leffler and Malsam were penalized 25 driver points; owners Todd and Ralph Braun were docked 25 owners points.

NASCAR said tires allocated to Leffler were used by Malsam during Saturday's race at Nashville Superspeedway. Teams are given a certain number of sets of tires for a race weekend, and an organization cannot transfer tires among its teams without NASCAR approval.

NASCAR said the Braun teams moved the tires, and also changed the identification numbers on previously approved tires, according to the NASCAR news release Wednesday.

Team owner Todd Braun said the penalties were ``harsh under the circumstances,'' but added he understood NASCAR's discipline.

``We understand NASCAR's need to be consistent in making sure teams adhere to the rule book in order to promote a level playing field,'' Braun said in a statement. ``This situation is the result of miscommunication between team personnel and we will need to further evaluate the circumstances and work to improve our procedures to ensure this does not happen again.''

Leffler dropped from seventh into a tie for eighth in the standings, and is now 755 points behind series points leader Brad Keselowski.

It was Malsam's debut with the team.

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