DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Saturday evening, Junior Johnson was fined $45,000 for being in violation of a directive in the NASCAR rule book.
Yesterday, crew chief Mike Beam refused to acknowledge the team had been caught cheating.
NASCAR leveled the fine, and refused to allow the team to run for the pole, when the "insert portion" of the intake manifold was found not to be welded on the Johnson Ford. According to Section 12, Rule 4 of the NASCAR Winston Cup Rule Book, as well as the 1995 Daytona 500 entry blank, any internal modification to a car's engine must be visibly welded in place.
The loose part would have provided more air to the engine and given the car more speed, according to NASCAR officials.
"It's a situation where the manifold was welded but not good enough for NASCAR," said Beam, who was fined $100 and put on indefinite probation for the incident. "The welds were there, but they were loose. It is a rule infraction.
"But I think the fine to Junior was excessive. I understand they're trying to send a warning that they're not going to tolerate any violations, but we will appeal. The piece was welded."
Yesterday evening, Gary Nelson, NASCAR's chief inspector, pulled the piece of equipment in question out from under his desk, stuck his fingers in the metal insert and lifted it up and down within the manifold without resistance.
"Does that look welded to you?" he asked. "There are marks that indicate it was scuffed up as if it was welded, but when one of these [side] screws is loosened, it's pretty obvious that it wasn't."
The Johnson team will take part in second-day time trials today to determine its starting place in Thursday's 125-mile qualifying races. The 125s determine the starting spots in Sunday's Daytona 500 for everyone except the drivers who had the two fastest cars in Saturday's first-round qualifying. They secured the front row -- Dale Jarrett and Dale Earnhardt.
"I don't know a whole lot about what happened," said the Johnson team's driver, Brett Bodine. "But it's not the end of the world. We've got to race for our starting spot for the 500 on Thursday, and if everything goes well for us, we should get ourselves back into contention."
Johnson wasn't here Saturday or yesterday. Beam said he's home in North Carolina building a new home.
"I called him and told him he'd been fined $45,000," said Beam. "He took it real well. All he said was, 'You're kidding!' "
Another day, another fine
Crew chief Jeff Hammond was fined $5,000 and placed on indefinite probation yesterday, when 18 pounds of loose weight was found in the driver's compartment of Greg Sacks' car after the Busch Clash. The Sacks Pontiac had been heavily damaged during a crash, but Nelson said the weight had not been jarred into the driver's compartment.
"If you put your suitcase in the trunk and you get in a front-end accident," Nelson said, "the suitcase is probably going to stay in the trunk."
The fine was for creating a dangerous situation for the driver.
ARCA 200 winner
Andy Hillenburg won his superspeedway race and first career ARCA race in the ARCA 200, when he drove his Air Orlando Chevrolet to victory under a caution flag. Hillenburg averaged 130.293 mph.