Toyota/SaveMart 350 race favorite Jeff Gordon and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson have been penalized by NASCAR after the cars they were driving failed inspection for illegal front fender modifications. Because of the infraction, NASCAR barred Gordon and Johnson from all NASCAR activity on Friday at Infineon Raceway, site of Sunday’s Toyota/SaveMart 350 road race. Due to their absence, Gordon and Johnson were unable to qualify or practice and will be forced to start at the back of the pack when the green flag drops on Sunday.
Gordon had previously been installed by oddsmake rs as the race favorite at 5/2 odds and Johnson with 20/1 odds. Following the penalty, odds on Gordon winning the race has dropped to 11/2 and 25/1 for Johnson. Tony Stewart takes over as odds on favorite to win the race at 3/1 while Robby Gordon at 5/1 and Juan Pablo Montoya at 6/1 have a solid chance of winning.
"When we presented the cars for inspection today, they found that our fenders were outside of what they felt was the tolerance allowable in between the templates,” said Dough Duchardt, Vice President of Development at Hendrick Motorsports. “Our understanding was that the cars fit the templates, but they were outside of what they would like to see us in between the templates. I think that they thing for us, from our standpoint, we understand fully the rules around the template, or we felt we understood fully, the rules around the template, however, we felt that we could work between the points on the template and it became clear to us today, and I think to everyone, that that is not acceptable."
Gordon and Johnson will be facing a tremendous challenge on Sunday as no driver has ever won a race at Sonoma from starting at the back.
"Well obviously, nothing is going to ruin my day or weekend, because I'm on cloud nine.” Gordon said after learning of his penalty. “This has obviously been pretty devastating news here at the race track but you know let's do something that we have never seen done before. I think that is where I stand and I think would probably say the very same thing, but this definitely puts us into a box and we are going to have to work our way out of it and we are one of the best teams out there, I love the road courses and I know these guys have brought a great race car and I am looking forward to getting out there, hopefully sometime tomorrow and see what we have for them on Sunday and I think that pit strategy is going to be extremely important for us."
In Friday’s qualifying, Jamie McMurray out drove the road racing specialists and the rest of the contenders Friday to win his first pole in nearly two years. McMurray posted his lap of 1 minute, 17.521 seconds (92.414 mph) on the 1.99-mile road course midway through the session, then had to wait for NASCAR's top qualifier Ryan Newman and former Formula One star Juan Pablo Montoya, both at the rear of the qualifying line, to try to knock him off. But Newman wound up ninth at 1:17.826 (92.062) and Montoya came up way short at 1:18.746 (90.976), good for 32nd.
Prior to qualifying, McMurray was considered a long shot to win the race at 40/1 odds but that changed to 10/1 putting him in with the contenders.
