The following is a statement from Southern National Motorsports Park track management regarding post-race inspection of the cars of #5 Lee Pulliam and #27 Tommy Lemons Jr.:
During the post-race tech inspection conducted July 19th the exhaust collector pipes from the #5 and #27 cars came into question. After thoroughly inspecting the parts, questions came up as to whether the parts meet the specifications as written in the NASCAR rule book. A closer look into the rule book found many areas of the rule were left open to interpretation and the Officials could not conclude with 100% certainty as to whether the parts did in fact meet the rule as written.
It is the policy of SNMP to give the racer every benefit of doubt before imposing any type of penalty. Without 100% certainty it was not possible to make a ruling that night and it was decided to send the parts to the NASCAR R&D center for further evaluation and interpretation of the rule as written in the NASCAR rulebook.
On Tuesday July 22 Les Westerfield, interim Director, Weekly Racing called to inform us NASCAR had inspected the parts, had a meeting to discuss the findings, and it was ruled the parts in question do in fact meet the guidelines of the 2014 rule book.
Therefore, the results from both races will stand as posted.
At SNMP we firmly believe upholding the integrity of the rule book “as written” is critical to ensure the long term success of any of the NASCAR Home Tracks.
It is the competitor’s responsibility to read and understand the rule book. It is also the competitor’s responsibility to utilize their knowledge of the rule book to set up their car to achieve the maximum performance that can be gained within the rules.
It is our responsibility to ensure a fair set of rules that encourages good competition is made available and enforced. We believe the NASCAR rule book achieves the first of these objectives.
In pursuit of the second objective it is the goal of SNMP to ensure every competitor is treated fairly and given an equal opportunity to compete on a fair playing field. When a boundary is crossed intentional or not, it is only fair to the other competitors to penalize the infraction. However, by no means do we want to penalize anyone that is willing to devote their resources in the legitimate pursuit of advancing their on track performance.
It is the fair enforcement of the rules that uphold the integrity of the sport and make the competitors want to be involved.
Southern National Motorsports Park is committed to these principles and you can be assured every attempt will be made to ensure every competitor is treated fairly with the respect they deserve.”
SNMP PR
