Last Wednesday, owner Richard Childress sat down in front of three judges and pled their case.
Childress was looking for NASCAR to reverse their penalty on his No. 33 team after Clint Bowyer's car was outside of the alotted tolerance after New Hampshire.
Childress has been adamant that it was the tow truck that caused the infraction following Bowyer's win at New Hampshire.
RCR brought an accident reconstruction expert in Dr. Charles Manning to show how it is possible. In the end the three judge panel upheld NASCAR’s penalty and leaving Childress with one final option.
Manning said after the announcement last Wednesday, "They [the commission] paid no attention, which says something about what's going on in there," said Manning, noting his company, founded in 1979, has been used many times to prove cause in a court of law. "What we brought was positive proof that the damage was caused by the tow truck pushing the car."
Childress and the rest of their team will try and plead their case to John Middlebrook. Middlebrook was the former General Manager of Chevrolet Racing and was named the new Chief Appellate officer last year.
Middlebrook is really RCR’s last hope in the appeal of the 150 point penalty that took Bowyer from second in the points and a title contender to 12th in the points and basically a non factor in the championship.
A lot rides on the ruling on Tuesday for Bowyer and his team. We are winding down to the final weeks in the season.
Part of the penalty is that Bowyer’s crew chief and car chief are suspended six races. This could mean starting Sunday at California. It’s a very important time of the year for these teams.
You start to prepare for next season and even though he is in the Chase, his title hopes are a long shot.
If Middlebrook decides in RCR’s favor and gives back some of the points penalty or even all of the points he would sit 10th in the standings. He would only be 102 points out which would put him right back in the mix of the title hunt.
If the penalty is overturn it would give Bowyer new life and really a second chance at the title. He would still be a long shot in the title hunts not only for how many guys he would have to out run but because this teams performance has dropped off in recent weeks.
The odds are very small to be honest that this will happen. Rarely does a NASCAR penalty get overturned at the highest level.
In NASCAR if you were already close enough to that gray area that even if there was a possibility, you were cutting it too close in the first place.
Bowyer and Childress are hoping that Middleton sees it differently.
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