NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Gibbs Cars Caught With Wrong Oil Pans
Joe Gibbs Racing was found to have had unapproved oil pans...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted June 17, 2011   Brooklyn, MI
The confiscated oil pans of the Joe Gibbs Racing cars at Michigan International Speedway. (Photo: Tom Jensen/SPEED)
Joe Gibbs Racing had unapproved— and unusually heavy — oil pans seized from its three NASCAR Sprint Cup cars Friday morning at Michigan International Speedway.

Officially, the issue was that the oil pans had not been submitted for approval by NASCAR, a standard procedure for the thousands of parts and pieces on race cars.

“Friday morning during opening day inspection at Michigan International Speedway, NASCAR officials determined that the oil pans from the three Joe Gibbs Racing cars — the No. 11, No. 18 and No. 20 — had not been submitted for prior approval by NASCAR,” the sanctioning body said in a statement issued Friday morning. “NASCAR instructed the three teams to change out these oil pans. If the teams did not change them out prior to today's first practice session, their practice times would not be allowed. Series Director John Darby reported that all three teams had changed out their oil pans before the first practice — so their times will be allowed.:

But a bigger issue ultimately might be weight. While a standard NASCAR Sprint Cup oil pan weighs about 4 pounds, the three taken off the Gibbs cars weighed an estimated 20-30 pounds apiece. Competitors contacted by SPEED.com and FOXSports.com said the heavy oil pans would allow the teams to remove weight elsewhere in the car and put it low and on the front of the car, which could provide a handling advantage, perhaps a substantial one.

NASCAR did not make any ruling on the additional weight, simply saying that it was an unapproved parts issue.

“The parts were never submitted,” NASCAR Sprint Cup Series director John Darby told FOXSports.com’s Lee Spencer. “It’s black and white. It’s not that it’s different than what we’re used to seeing, it’s that these parts were never submitted by the company.”

Officials did not penalize JGR at the track but said in a statement, “NASCAR will discuss early next week if there will be any additional penalties assessed to these three teams.”

JGR’s Denny Hamlin said he was unaware of the details surrounding the oil pans.

“I don’t know a whole lot about it, to be honest with you,” Hamlin said. “We continue to evolve our cars and things like that throughout the course of a season. All teams do. And usually when you have a new part, sometimes you submit it and sometimes you don’t and I feel like this probably is one of the parts that NASCAR wants you to submit. … We showed up at the prom with a different date.”

What do you think NASCAR should do about the Joe Gibbs Racing unapproved oil pans? Add a comment below.

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
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