No. 98 crew chief suspended for a race, fined $25,000
Unsecured ballast during practice at Indianapolis meant a pretty hefty fine and a suspension for Premium Motorsports.
Timmy Hill’s car lost a piece of tungsten during one of Friday’s practice sessions. As a result, crew chief Scott Eggleston was suspended for a race and fined $25,000. By NASCAR’s penalty grading system it’s a P3 penalty.
Car chief Kevin Eagle was also suspended. Both were put on probation until the end of the season and the team was penalized 15 points.
The tungsten adds weight to the car to help it reach the minimum 3,250 pound weight while empty. Unsecured tungsten can be dangerous if it falls out on the track while cars are at speed. Just look at what happened at Iowa.
The tungsten fell out of Hill’s car at the exit of pit road.
It was a trying weekend for the No. 98 team, a backmarker team that doesn’t have the resources of the Sprint Cup’s behemoths. Hill crashed the car in Friday’s last practice and the team rushed hurriedly to get the backup car, which was basically a shell car, ready to go on track. After putting in a qualifying lap on Saturday to just simply get a speed on the board, Hill finished 41st on Sunday.
Josh Wise had driven for the team until they parted ways after Kentucky.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
