Three drivers pushed to back of pack,
Cars of Truex, Harvick, Vickers fail 500 qualifying inspection
BEACH, FLA . Three DAYTONA drivers were moved to the rear of their respective Daytona 500 qualifying race fields after inspections revealed their cars did not meet NASCAR specifications during time trials Sunday at Daytona International Speedway.
Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick and Brian Vickers are scheduled to start at the back of the Can-Am Duel 150-mile qualifying races Thursday that determine much of the 40-car starting order for Sunday’s 500, NASCAR’s ver- sion of the Super Bowl.
Truex did not make a qualifying run Sunday after officials said a roof flap on his Toyota was not in compliance with prescribed specifications.
NASCAR said the Furniture Row Racing team was not able to correct the problem in the fiveminute window in which the driver must begin the qualifying run, thus forfeiting its attempt.
NASCAR said track bars on the Stewart-Haas Racing cars of Harvick and Vickers did not meet specifications and their qualifying times were disallowed.
There is the possibility NASCAR could issue additional penalties to the teams.
This also happened in 2015, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Denny Hamlin were sent to the rear of the Duel field for track bar issues. NASCAR did not further penalize those teams.
Rodney Childers, crew chief for Harvick, tweeted an explanation of the failure, plus an apology:
“We will have to start in the rear of our 150.. We measured our TB in a different spot than they did and ended up with 1/4” too much rake.”
“I want to apologize to @NASCAR @jimmyjohns and our fans. It was a simple mistake on our part and look fwd to racing Thursday night. Thx.”