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Despain: They took your original NASCAR suspension, which was 12 weeks, and applied it only to Sprint Cup, meaning you can still work in Truck and Nationwide. How does that change in the suspension affect your life? Does it help?
Long: “A little. It will allow me to go with our Nationwide team but at the same time, if I’m spotting for our Nationwide team, are they going to kick me out of the flagman’s stand if I’m spotting for the Cup team when they change practice sessions? It’s been pretty tough because when I go to the race track, if I was going cheated, I was going to go ‘big cheated’ and if I got kicked out I had every opportunity to load up and go the house and we didn’t. So, here I am and we can’t pay the fine, so we’re just out of NASCAR.”

Despain: Does Ernie Elliott have a role in this? Does the engine builder have any responsibility in your mind?
Long: “I tried to see if NASCAR, when I lobbied the hearing, would make engine builders responsible, and that’s not a part of it. Ernie basically cut me a deal – he had a lot of extra Ganassi engines, he cut me a deal on one. Why it’s big and how it got big I have no idea. His part was as much as it overheated, it melted the head gasket into the cylinder head and he said that’s why it got big.”

Despain: It was a crew chief’s fine … does it revert to you if he can’t pay it?
Long: “Yes, at the end of the year, section 12 of the rulebook basically states any fines not settled goes back to the owner, which my wife was listed as the owner. So, typically, you could say I’m off the hook. But how do I go back to the race track without my wife when it’s my team?”

Despain: Have they run you off?
Long: “I hope not. David Reutimann has started cheerleading and trying to pool up some money and make things happen for us. This penalty is probably at least 300-percent more than what we make. I don’t know how I go forward with it. You want to race. You want to be a part of it. Yes, I can be in the Nationwide Series garage and so forth but at the end of the year, my license is not in good standing. I’ve never seen anything to compare it to in the past.”

SPEED, now in more than 78 million homes in North America, is the exclusive home of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, Gatorade Duel at Daytona, NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The only network delivering live, at-track programming all season long, SPEED offers the definitive pre- and post-race NASCAR Sprint Cup Series programs – NASCAR RaceDay and NASCAR Victory Lane, as well as other popular NASCAR programs including Trackside Live, NASCAR Performance, NASCAR Live!, This Week in NASCAR, NCWTS Setup and NASCAR in a Hurry.

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