Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Eighth of an inch costs Earnhardt crew chief

Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2001 | 10:50 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089.

Tony Eury Sr., the Winston Cup crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr., was fined $25,000 by NASCAR for a rule violation following Earnhardt's victory in Sunday's EA Sports 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Earnhardt's car did not meet the minimum height requirement of 51 inches during the post-race inspection. According to NASCAR, Earnhardt's car was an eighth of an inch under the minimum requirement.

More importantly for Earnhardt is that he was allowed to keep the victory and was not penalized with the loss of points. Earnhardt moved up one spot to sixth in Winston Cup points following his third win of the season.

The fine was identical to the one levied on Jeremy Mayfield's crew chief, Peter Sospenzo, following a similar infraction after Mayfield's win last year at California Speedway.

Eury wasn't the only crew chief that will be forced to dig into his wallet this week. Larry Carter, crew chief for Todd Bodine, was fined $10,000 and placed on probation until the end of the season for "being involved in an altercation in another competitor's pit area."

Harvick's pit camera caught Carter attempting to approach Harvick's car during a pit stop following an on-track incident between Harvick and Bodine. The incident later was shown on national television. Carter is suspended from NASCAR until all fines are paid.

In addition, eight other crew chiefs were fined from $250 to $5,500 for assorted rules violations. Among those, Bobby King (Hut Stricklin's crew chief) and Michael McSwain (Ricky Rudd) both were fined $5,000 for rear deck lid violations and Sospenzo (Mike Wallace) was fined $5,500 for an unapproved fuel cell and under pans. Terry Spalding, a team member of the No. 26 Ford Taurus driven by Jimmy Spencer, was fined $5,000 and placed on indefinite suspension from NASCAR for allegedly selling credentials.

The 2002 Las Vegas Winston Cup race will mark the fourth time the event has been designated a No Bull 5 race. This year, Jeff Gordon won the race and the million-dollar bonus and Jeff Burton won the race and the bonus in the rain-shortened race in 2000.

In addition to competing in Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 Winston Cup race at PIR in the No. 36 Pontiac, Schrader will run in Thursday's NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series race, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on Friday and the NASCAR Busch Series race on Saturday.

"Racing isn't just my job, it's also my hobby," Schrader said. "When the opportunity was presented to me to run all the races in Phoenix, I couldn't say no. It's going to be busy, but to me that is fun."

Andretti, 22, was supposed to have made his NASCAR debut Oct. 13 in the Southwest Series race at LVMS, but was not cleared by NASCAR to run on the 1.5-mile superspeedway because of lack of experience.