TRUEX PUTS EXTENSION TALKS ON HOLD

For now, at least, Martin Truex Jr., one of the hottest quasi-free agents in the sport, halted talks on a contract extension in the wake of his #1 team's season-killing penalties announced earlier this week.

"We’ve been working through some things, and certainly [with the penalty] last week, I said to myself, ‘This isn’t the first thing on my list right now, there are some other things we had to work through,’ ” Truex said regarding his ongoing contract talks according to SceneDaily.com.

“We had some great things at DEI this week, some great meetings on what happened, how we’re going to fix it and the direction we’re headed as a race team.

Truex was penalized 150 driver points, and the company 150 owner points, in the wake of a failed inspection at Daytona last weekend. The penalties dropped Truex from a manageable 88 points out of the final Chase spot to an insurmountable 238 points out.

More importantly, Truex went from the one small step of having two drivers to overtake for the position to needing one giant leap for mankind to vault past six drivers with a mere eight races remaining until The Chase.

As to his contract situation, multiple sources continue to tell Stock Car Talk that the option for Truex in '09 is a mutual option. Both sides must pick up all aspects of the option in order for it to be enforced, sources said.

TRUEX FOLLOW-UP

As is the case with all penalties levied by NASCAR, Dale Earnhardt Inc. will have ten days to file an appeal with the NASCAR Racing Commission in regard to the previously announced sanctions.

If/when the appeal is heard, The Commission has the authority to do one of the following: uphold their earlier ruling, reduce the penalties, or, in a select few cases, increase the penalties.

If history is our guide, and DEI decides to appeal, they will likely fail.

Miserably.

In late May of this year, the #66 and #70 teams of Haas/CNC/(insert Smoke's moniker here) were given nearly identical penalties to that of the #1 team after being found to have altered their rear wing mounts prior to the Coca-Cola 600. Haas/CNC appealed, but The Commission upheld their earlier ruling.

In summation? You mess with the COT, you will lose your appeal. At least in these types of cases, NASCAR seems to be very consistent.

Now, about that whole "when to and when not to throw the yellow at the end of races" thing they seem to struggle with...