Needless to say…when I heard that the guy got caught with an illegal nose on his race car while preparing to race at Daytona last week, I knew he was going down. Penalties would be thrown his way and he’d take them and keep right on going. But when I read that the penalty was 100 points and $100,000.00 I stopped for a second and thought… “Now wait just a second...is this consistent with other Car of Tomorrow (which is now THE car) violations?” or is Robby being made an example of early in the year to get everyone’s attention? I soon found it was indeed consistent, to the point of identical. Remember last year at Infineon Raceway when the fenders of the No. 24 and the No. 48 were found to be too wide? Those were COT cars and their penalties were just the same, 100 points, $100,000.00 points for each team. And lest we forget, the No. 8 got whacked when it was discovered that someone messed around with the fenders of the COT…same fine, same story, same ending.

Robby’s defense?

“This was an innocent mistake made by someone not even on my team. They accidentally supplied us the new Dodge noses that NASCAR hasn't yet approved because of what amounted to a clerical error. It was discovered during technical inspection and corrected before the race. It was not even close to being an intent to create some competitive advantage, and the mistake was not even made by my team.”

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t intentional…unfortunately for Robby, NASCAR could care less if it was thought about for months, planned while at a cocktail party or if it was just a spur of the moment idea. Nor do they give a rats behind how it happened or who actually turned the screws and tightened the bolts. They’ve made it clear, very clear, if the COT body is messed with, you’re going to pay the price…plain and simple...fiddle with the machine and you’re going to find yourself without 100 points and not enough cash left in your pocket to pay your parking ticket.

“To penalize my team the same amount when we didn't even make the mistake”, Robby continued, “and the mistake was nothing more than inadvertent human error by someone else is just not fair. Other teams who have had similar issues to what happened with the nose on my car were only penalized 25 points.”

I’m guessing Robby’s referring to the penalty the No. 99 team received while at Dover International Speedway last season when they got zapped 25 points and $25.000.00 for the after win inspection that found their car was too low. It was during the Chase, and NASCAR defended their actions, stating that while it was a COT, the body was not altered.

I think that’s the catch right there…the body was tampered with this time. And as much as I would love to jump on the bandwagon and agree with Robby’s thinking, just because I genuinely like the guy, NASCAR isn’t going to change their mind. At least not if they follow the pattern they have made sure to put out there. And I don’t blame them.

Consistency is one thing that up until the Car of Tomorrow made its debut seemed to be something that NASCAR just couldn’t quite get a handle on…at least it appeared that way to us fans. I suspect if we’d been privy to the reasoning behind each decision we would perhaps have had a clearer view of all those calls, but that’s neither here nor there.

We are in a new era…with a new car, a stricter set of rules, and an enforcement team that is pretty much like your average drill sergeant…you mess up and you will without a doubt do the punishment, doesn’t matter why you did it, how it happened or if it was your Aunt May that snuck in overnight and did it….it’s your car, you take the responsibility of the whole kit and caboodle.

I have absolute confidence that this penalty will not put a damper in Robby’s goals, his focus or his determination. He’ll still run his car in NASCAR races, and he’ll still push his tweaks and jiggles all the way to the edge, because that’s what makes him what he is. And I don’t know about you, but if Robby was any different, I don’t think I’d like that one little bit. He’s a good guy, one heck of a racer, and devoted beyond what most fellows can only dream of.

But I’ll still shake my head when Robby gets caught the next time…and not because I’ll be thinking he was stupid enough to try it again, but because I knew he was smart enough to try it again.

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