Chad Knaus raises questions about NASCAR’s punishment

“Nobody is holding the single-source providers accountable to the level they need to be to get us the parts we need. That goes through the NASCAR distribution center and the NASCAR approval process to get those parts, and we’re not getting the right parts.

“There are so many areas where we need to keep improving,” Knaus said, referring to the sport. “Again, that’s probably what I’m most disappointed about is that we’ve gone down this path, been working collectively as a group for a while now and for this to show up like this is really disappointing.”

Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, said earlier this week that the hood slats had been modified.

“It was clear to us that these parts had been modified in an area that had not been approved,” Sawyer said. “This is a consistent penalty to what we experienced last year. … We felt like keeping the garage on a level playing field and the level of competition where it needs to be, all the dialogue that went around this car last year, working with the owners on which should be the deterrent model, we were put in a position where we felt there was no other way but to write a penalty.

Asked if the adjustments might affect downforce, Sawyer said, “We don’t normally get into intent, but I think it’s fair to say… performance could be around these changes.”

In his statement earlier this week, Hendrick Motorsports cited “documented inconsistent and unclear communications by the sanctioning body specifically related to slats.”

Asked to clarify that communication, Knaus said, “We submitted a part through (Chevrolet) to NASCAR and then NASCAR chose the single-source provider for those components.

“The components have not come as we expected for a few (manufacturers) as far as I know in the garage and certainly for all the Chevrolet teams, so we started to have a dialogue with them (NASCAR) in early February about those issues.

“It was us through our aero department, through (Chevrolet), back through NASCAR, back to us and back to (Chevrolet). There has been a significant amount of communication. It sure is confusing. The timelines are curious, but they are there.”

Knaus said Hendrick Motorsports typically undergoes a voluntary on-track inspection after passing the mandatory engine inspection and mandatory safety inspection shortly after the garage opens for the race weekend. That’s what the Hendrick cars did on March 10 in Phoenix.

Knaus said Hendrick’s cars often go through the voluntary inspection, “so NASCAR has the option to say, ‘Hey, we don’t like this’ or ‘Maybe you should modify that’ or whatever it may be. That’s pretty much the standard cadence.”

Hendrick Motorsports stated this week that the slats were not taken until four hours after that voluntary inspection. Knaus said he didn’t know why NASCAR didn’t do something right away.

“It’s really confusing,” Knaus said. “We knew there was attention for that area when we first went through the technical inspection. That’s what really disappointed me, to be honest, is that we had enough time to get the parts off the car if we felt something was wrong.

“I can assure you that if we knew there was going to be a four hour delay and we thought something was wrong, they would have been sitting in a bin burned with fuel somewhere so no one would ever see them. We had no idea we would be in this position. Really disappointed that we are in the position we are in now.”

Asked if he felt the parts were defective or if Hendrick had modified the parts that they believed were acceptable for NASCAR, Knaus said, “We have a brand new set of these parts that we can get right off the shelf now NASCAR as illegal and inappropriate for us to race.”

Knaus said the team was not aware of a date for the appeal.

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