NASCAR deals out harsh penalties

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., June 9 (UPI) -- NASCAR announced Wednesday it had fined Front Row Motorsports crew chief Steve Lane $100,000 and suspended him for 12 weeks.

Driver Travis Kvapil and car owner Doug Yates also had 150 points taken away from their season-long totals, and both car chief Richard Bourgeois and tire specialist Michael Harrold were suspended for 12 weeks.

NASCAR officials said the penalties were handed out because of illegal valve stem caps used on Kvapil's car last weekend in the Sprint Cup event at Pocono Raceway.

"We take the rules of this sport very seriously, and we support NASCAR in its enforcement of those rules," team owner Bob Jenkins said in a statement. "It was not our intent to put unapproved valve stem caps on our car at Pocono, a track where such a maneuver would clearly not provide any advantage.

"We are conducting our own internal investigation to determine how those parts got into our inventory and onto our car last weekend.

"While we recognize we have to pay for our mistake, this was an unintentional, isolated incident. We plan to immediately submit an appeal through NASCAR's formal appeal process as outlined by the NASCAR rule book."

The point deduction knocked Kvapil out of the Top 35 in Sprint Cup Series owner standings, which means he is not guaranteed a spot for next Sunday's race at Michigan.