DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – NASCAR has disallowed Daytona 500 qualifying runs by Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Kevin Harvick and Brian Vickers.
During post-qualifying inspections Sunday, officials determined that the track bars on the cars were not in compliance with specifications. Harvick's No. 4 Chevrolet and Vickers' No. 14 Chevy will have to start at the rear in their qualifying races Thursday. Vickers is filling in Tony Stewart while the three-time NASCAR champion recovers from a broken vertebra.
Martin Truex Jr., who like Harvick was one of four drivers racing for the championship in last year's finale, did not make a qualifying attempt because a roof flap of his No. 78 Toyota was out of compliance, and the team could not fix it within a designated five-minute window. He also will start one of the qualifying races from the back.
"They didn't like the way it was landing when it went down," crew chief Cole Pearn said. "I don't know, it was that way the whole way down pit road. I'm not sure what the problem was, it could have been easily fixed but either way they decided to put it on the five-minute clock when we were down there at the end. I don't know why we had to run it back here because there was no way we were going to get back here and get back out in time."
NASCAR said the violations "will be discussed further," meaning penalties and fines could be handed down.
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