NASCAR: Michael McDowell and Whitney Motorsports Penalized After New Hampshire

In the midst of the controversy surrounding Clint Bowyer, another team's penalty was lost in the discussion.

The No. 46 Dodge of Whitney Motorsports, driven by Michael McDowell, was penalized after failing post-race inspection at New Hampshire Motor Speedway this past weekend.

The penalty stands as 50 driver points, 50 owner points, and crew chief Jeremy LaFaver was suspended from NASCAR competition for six weeks after the valves in the engine were below mandated weight.

"I stand by NASCAR's decision in that they give us a box to work within and as competitors we are all expected to work within that box,” Dusty Whitney, owner of Whitney Motorsports, said in a press release. “However, I am extremely disappointed in that as a small team, we outsource our engine building and we entrust our engine builder to ensure we meet the NASCAR parameters and engine requirements.

"By entrusting a third party that did not perform to NASCAR's standards, our team is not only suffering a hefty financial penalty but we are also losing a valuable member of our team for six races along with a substantial loss of owner and driver points. We expect all of our vendors and outsourced suppliers to perform within the guidelines established by Whitney Motorsports and NASCAR and it is extremely unfortunate and costly when they do not."

Whitney Motorsports said in its press release that they got the motor from Gillette-Evernham Motorsports, and got it rebuilt and updated by Arrington Engines.

On the surface, this could look like an error on one of the parties’ parts. However, could this dig deeper? With Gillette-Evernham having this connection, could they had been trying something when they were running Dodges last year, and it slipped through when they were selling their old motors off?