Hard charging Robby Gordon will go before the NASCAR board on Wednesday March 5th to appeal against the 100-point penalty and $100,000 dollar fine for his crew chief levied against his team at
Daytona.
Although it is rare for NASCAR to overturn a penalty once it has been given Gordon seems to have as good a case as anyone following an outpouring of support from fans and even his sponsor following the parts mix-up in pre-race tech at Daytona.
NASCAR penalised Gordon and his #7 team 100 championship points, fined his crew chief Frank Kerr $100,000 dollars and suspended him for six races after Dodge supplied Gordon with an unapproved nose section (albeit with the same serial number as the approved piece) for his Daytona car.
The penalty was in line with NASCAR's policy on cars that fail pre-race inspection due to body issues but with mitigating circumstances, namely the manufacturer supplying the wrong part, many are hoping that NASCAR will at least trim the penalty to 25 or 50 points.
Suitably incensed by what has happened Gordon powered to an eighth place finish in Daytona and then battled to 18th place in the Auto Club 500 as he continues to be the leading light amongst NASCAR's ever-dwindling number of single car teams in the Cup Series.
Trying to keep his self-run operation among the top 35 in team standings the #7 Jim Beam backed outfit currently lies 32nd in the table but without the penalty Gordon would be 12th and in one of the ‘Chase for the Championship' berths.
