Today NASCAR officials reiterated their position regarding cheating to gain an advantage and the use of bump drafting that has become prevalent, especially on the restrictor plate superspeedways.

After it was discovered post-qualifying that the #48 Lowes Chevy was rigged with a adjustable fixture to change the height of the rear window after the pre-qualifying inspection, Chad Knaus, the crew chief for the #48 team, was ejected from Daytona International Speedway for the rest of Speedweeks. However this appears to be only the beginning of the "time off" given the #48 chief. Without being officially confirmed it appears that Knaus will also miss the next two races in California and Las Vegas. And owners/drivers points could also be on the table.

So it appears that NASCAR has come to the end of its rope in dealing with teams that are stretching or even outright disregarding the rules. Determined to keep everyone on the same page, NASCAR has floated the option of sending an entire team home if it came to that. With the top-35 automatically qualifying, a move like this could send a ripple through the garage and the owners pocket books. But how else will NASCAR get their attention other than hitting the perpetrators where it hurts?

The other issue of the day was the excessive use of the bump (read "slam") drafting that is prevalent on the superspeedways. After defending NASCAR Nextel Cup champion Tony Stewart publicly came forward and said that another fatality was in the making, NASCAR is taking steps to penalize the most serious offenders. In place for the 2006 Daytona 500 will be extra TV cameras and officials observing the racing in the so called "no zones" in each turn. Offending drivers will be called to the pits, and if it continues will be sent to the garage for a time out. While not solving the problem, NASCAR is looking at ways to make the front end of the race cars more fragile without compromising the safety of the vehicle. Maybe lets open those restrictor plates up and give these guys some speed to get out of the way of each other? Well that won't happen anytime soon.

It will be interesting to see if any of these changes make a difference if it will business as usual.