"Acid-Dipped Racecars? Too Much RedBull?"
Quick take from the NASCAR Justice department: The Red Bull #83 team got a major handslap because of some irregularities in the way the bodies were hung on the Car of Tomorrow. Driver Brian Vickers was whacked 150 driver points...crew chief Kevin Hamlin and car chief Craig Smokstad both were given a "time out" from NASCAR tracks (but not the shop...) and General Manager Jay Frye was doing the NASCAR version of the Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa ( Latin for My Fault, My Fault, My Most Grevious Fault) when the news broke. A major lash of NASCAR Justice, IMHO. Dieter Mateschitz was fined $150,000 (about an hours worth of US sales of the energy drink +/-).
The irregularities included thinner than 24 gauge sheet metal on the bodies. NASCAR did not confiscate the chassis, but sawed off the sheet metal and returned that chassis to Red Bull.
Hamlin will have a lot of time to figure out the chassis back at the shop while he is laboring in NASCAR Purgatory (a/k/a indefinite suspension).
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