Hendrick Team Points and Penalties Overturned By Appellate; A Few More Points

Today we saw NASCAR's Appellate court in action... when Rick Hendrick and NASCAR faced off the last time in regards to the car body rules infraction that was incurred at Daytona.

On the line were a huge collective of points for both driver and owner, a lengthy "vacation" from the track for a few, and, for you or I, a hefty fine.

But after hearing both sides of the story, with Rick Hendrick showing 20 different photos and almost 20 pages of documentation and affidavits as to the legality of the car, he seemed to have made a point.  He had also added to his testimony how the car had sat in the R&D center in January and Hendrick had written proof that the car wasn't altered after being in the center.

With that all said and done, the man making the final judgement surprised the entire NASCAR fan community when he overturned the ruling, giving the driver and owner points back to the team, BUT, leaving the $100k fine in place.

By Jimmie Johnson getting his points back, he's now 11th in the driver standings, 36 points out of first.

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But fans are going crazy because the want to know how one can drop the points penalties and suspensions, yet keep the fine in place?  When NASCAR was asked about the fine remaining, they jumped on that one, saying it proves that the car wasnt right.

BTW:  John Middlebrook has heard 4 appeals now and has reduced portions of all of them.  And if I heard right on SiriusXM this morning, Middlebrook and Hendrick go way back because he used to work for GM.

That's probably not related, but it's out there.

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Now the questions of the day are how can NASCAR enforce car inspections if they only going to get turned over?  To be honest, I think they still can.  This was an eyeball call where no template sits.  With that said, I'm guessing there might be fewer judgement calls and more templates on the horizon!

But as to his reasoning, we'll never know what was going on in Middlebrook's mind.  The press was not given access to the man.

Albeit, that's all she wrote.  Jimmie is back in the hunt, Chad is still on the box and it's business back to normal.

Asked how he feels this will impact his image, Chad says it's not about image, it's about winning.  And that's what makes these two, Knaus and Johnson, a force to be reckoned with.  Chad Knaus does what he can to win in this day and age of such close parity.  And he does it often enough that he finds himself in hot water every few years.  Jimmy is the man who can drive the cars Chad squeaks out onto the track.

I'm betting they'll be playing it safe for a little while now.  At least though Fontana.  That's for sure.

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Bad News for Jimmie?

Though you have to wonder with two of Jimmie Johnson's championships having come in seasons where Chad had to sit out a few weeks each.

I thought this would fire them up when Chad was gone.  But now that Chad is not gone...  just saying!

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