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SceneDaily.com
SceneDaily.com
09/27/2008
Kansas City, Kan.
Juan Pablo Montoya was sent back the the rear of the field for illegal shocks. (Jason Smith/Getty Images Photo)
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Juan Pablo Montoya’s pole-winning run for Sunday's Camping World RV 400 was too good to be true.
Montoya, who put the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Dodge on the pole during Friday’s qualifying with a lap of 172.150 mph, instead will start from the 42nd spot Sunday after officials found the car’s rear shocks exceeded the maximum gas pressure allowed during post-qualifying inspection.
As a result, Jimmie Johnson, second fastest in qualifying, will start on the pole in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet.
Teams are required to run between a minimum of 25 pounds of nitrogen gas pressure and a maximum of 75 pounds in the rear shocks, according to John Darby, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series director.
The gas, he said, helps control foaming of the shock oil and “keep the oil pressure steady on both sides of the shock piston.” There have been instances, he said, when “teams have used excessive gas pressures and made the shock function outside of what a normal shock absorber is supposed to do.
“If you remember Dover a couple of years ago, we had an issue with some shocks on the back of a car that were constructed to actually jack the car up and that’s when we added language to the shock-absorber rules, specifically the rear shocks, and put the gas pressures in place with some other rules on how they compress and rebound and some things," Darby said.
Darby would only say that the pressures, which were measured after qualifying was completed, exceeded the 75-pound maximum.
Brian Pattie, crew chief of the No. 42 team, said the shock pressures measured 85 pounds.
“If 10 [additional] pounds is making us win races, I’d hate to know what Jimmie’s running,” Pattie said of the No. 48 team. “We run the same shocks every week, we set [the pressures] every week. We were just above everybody else, I guess. They checked multiple cars [and] we were the car that was wrong. I checked them myself and the ambient temperature was within a couple of degrees and it was off by a little bit. A rule is a rule.”
Pattie said he had no alternative but to accept the penalty.
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