DAYTONA BEACH, Florida — NASCAR announced today that the crew chief, owner and driver for the No. 72 NASCAR Nationwide Series team have been fined and penalized due to rule violations discovered during this past weekend’s event at Bristol Motor Speedway.
In addition to having the qualifying time disallowed for the No. 72 Ford driven by Benny Gordon, crew chief Andy Punch has been fined $10,000 and suspended for the next four NASCAR events from April 4-29, 2009 and placed on probation until Dec. 31, 2009, for violating Section 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing); 12-4-I (any determination by NASCAR officials that the race equipment used in the event does not conform to NASCAR rules), 20A-15 (NASCAR reserves the right to have all cars use the same brand of fuel in a given event) and 20A-15.2C (the gasoline must not be blended with alcohols, ethers, or other oxygenates and it must not be blended with aniline or its derivatives, nitro compounds or other nitrogen-containing compounds) of the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series rule book.
Team owner Frank Varischetti was penalized with the loss of 50 NASCAR Nationwide Series championship owner points while Gordon also was docked 50 NASCAR Nationwide Series championship driver points.
The infractions were discovered on March 20 during opening-day inspection
