CONCORD, N.C. (AP) – A NASCAR committee denied Richard Childress Racing’s appeal to have Clint Bowyer’s championship-ending penalty reversed, and the team owner vowed Wednesday to fight the decision to the organization’s highest level.
Richard Childress emerged from NASCAR’s research and development center after a nearly 5-hour hearing fighting the 150-point penalty levied against Bowyer after the car he drove to victory at New Hampshire failed inspection.
“After so many hours of whatever you want to call this, the ruling stood,” the team owner said. “I gave them the check and an appeal notice to the commissioner. We’re very disappointed.”
Childress said he paid the $150,000 fine issued to crew chief Shane Wilson, and made a formal request to appeal Wednesday’s decision to NASCAR chief appellate officer John Middlebrook, a former General Motors executive.
Bowyer and his RCR team were penalized last Wednesday, three days after his win in the opening race for the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. The victory snapped an 88-race winless streak and pushed Bowyer from 12th to second in the standings, 35 points behind Denny Hamlin.
The penalty dropped Bowyer to 12th in the standings, and he currently trails Hamlin by 235 points with eight Chase races remaining.
Childress was also docked 150 owners points, and in addition to Wilson’s fine, the crew chief also was suspended for six races. Chad Haney, the car chief on Bowyer’s No. 33 team, also was suspended for six races.
RCR has maintained that when Bowyer ran out of gas at the end of the New Hampshire race, a tow truck had to push him to Victory Lane and the contact caused the damage that contributed to a failed inspection.
Childress brought an accident reconstruction specialist to the hearing, but Dr. Charles Manning of Accident Reconstruction Analysis in Raleigh said the three-member appeals panel was not interested in his presentation.
“They paid no attention to anything I said, which says something about what’s going on in there,” Manning said.
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