Ryan Newman's points penalty reduced to 50 on appeal
Richard Childress Racing's appeal of penalties to Ryan Newman's No. 31 team at California netted the team a reduction in punishment.
NASCAR initially penalized the No. 31 team 75 points for manipulating tires during the March 22 race. Newman's team was found to have drilled holes in the car's tires. The slow loss of air via the holes allows the tires to better maintain a lower air pressure and, therefore, speed, throughout the duration of a tire run.
While the penalties were upheld, the points penalty is down to 50 points after the appeal. Crew chief Luke Lambert also saw his fine cut to $75,000 from $125,000 though his six-race suspension was upheld.
With the 50-point penalty, Newman has 162 points and is 20th in the standings.
According to a NASCAR release, NASCAR's appeals panel of John Capels, Hunter Nickell and Dale Pinilis
found that the violations matched what NASCAR defined them as. However, the penalties were lessened "because there is no written explanation of what constitutes a post-race inspection."
When announcing the penalties, NASCAR said the points penalty was 75 instead of 50 and the fine $125,000 instead of $75,000 because the violations were found after the race. Tires are leased from Goodyear and can be taken from teams during a race. It's unclear what set of tires from Newman's race at California were found to be manipulated.
RCR tire tech James Bender and engineer Philip Surgen are also suspended for six races with Lambert. The three worked in their same capacities Saturday night at Texas and will miss Bristol, Richmond, Talladega, Kansas and the All-Star Race and Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte unless RCR decides to appeal again. After the initial appeals panel, teams have the opportunity to make a final appeal. The team has not announced if it will do so.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
