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Wednesday, May 03, 2000 By Chris Dolack, Post-Gazette Sports Writer
NASCAR issued the most severe penalty in the series' modern era to Jeremy Mayfield's Penske-Kranefuss team yesterday after it discovered Mayfield's Ford Taurus contained illegal fuel in a postrace inspection after the April 16 DieHard 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Mayfield, who won his second career race Sunday at California Speedway, was on the pole for the race at Talladega.
Michael Kranefuss, who runs the team he co-owns with Roger Penske, was fined $50,000, crew chief Peter Sospenzo was suspended until June 6, and the team was stripped of 151 points, which drops it from seventh to 14th in the standings.
"It came down to a single crew member on the car who added the fuel to the dump cans before the last fuel stop," NASCAR senior vice president and chief operating officer Mike Helton said. "He takes full responsibility for doing it without the knowledge of the driver or the car owner or the crew chief."
The crew member was not identified.
The fine was the second largest in NASCAR history. Ray Evernham, who was Jeff Gordon's crew chief, was fined $60,000 for using unapproved suspension parts at Charlotte in 1995. Sospenzo's suspension is the longest the series issued and it was the most points NASCAR penalized any team in its modern era, which began in 1972.
"The additive was an oxygenate," Helton said. "An oxygenate in the race fuel we use is a performance enhancer."
Series director Gary Nelson said adding oxygen to the fuel could increase horsepower. As a safety measure, teams at superspeedways such as Talladega and Daytona are required to run engines with restrictor plates which limit air into the motor and reduces horsepower. Mayfield was in fifth before the final pit stop when the fuel was added; he finished 14th.
The 126 points for his 14th-place finish were stripped, plus an additional 25 points.
"I'd relate it to when you were young and your father pulled off his belt and the first two whacks were for what I did and the last one was so I wouldn't do it again," Helton said.
"Needless to say, we accept the penalty, we have taken disciplinary action within our team, and we apologize to our fans, our sponsors, NASCAR and the other teams," Kranefuss said.
Earlier this week, NASCAR impounded Mayfield's winning car from California to determine if the roof height conforms to series rules.
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