Edwards' Car Fails Inspection

DOVER, Delaware (Ticker) - The Ford Fusion driven to victory by Carl Edwards failed post-race inspection following Sunday's Dodge Dealers 400 at Dover International Raceway. The infraction could lead to penalties assessed against the Roush Fenway Racing team later this week.

"The car was found to be too low in the right-rear," NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said. "The height exceeded NASCAR's tolerances. "This is not considered a Car of Tomorrow-type penalty. There's no evidence of manipulation of the integrity of the structure of the car. It's a heights-inspection infraction." Poston said the car will be taken to its North Carolina research and development center for further inspection, while NASCAR officials will debate what penalties will be assessed.

Edwards hopes some post-race bumping from teammate Greg Biffle is the cause for the infraction. "The worse case would be 25 points, the right-rear being low - any engineer or crew chief in the garage will tell you that's the last thing you want," Edwards said. "You want the right-rear to be high. "The only thing I can think of is at the end of the race, Greg came up and gave me a couple of love taps to say 'good job, good race' and hopefully they find that that bent the tail of the car down a little bit. There are some braces bent under the decklid so hopefully that's what it is." A similar infraction occurred at New Hampshire in July, when the cars of Johnny Sauter and Kyle Busch failed to meet minimum height requirements. NASCAR took away 25 points apiece and fined each crew chief $25,000. If a similar penalty is assessed, Edwards would drop from fourth to sixth in the Nextel Cup standings.