There are times when Mondays and Tuesdays are the worst parts of Robin Pemberton's job. Those are the days when NASCAR's vice president for competition has to dish out penalties for violations discovered during the previous race weekend, alerting drivers, car owners or crew chiefs of point deductions or monetary fines headed their way.

“

You get hit with a penalty right now, your Chase hopes are going to go out the window. Everybody is being smart and saying, we can't be on the other side of that line and push NASCAR.

”

STEVE ADDINGTON

"I really can't express enough my feelings that the last thing we want to do on Mondays and Tuesdays is [assess] penalties," said Pemberton, a former crew chief on NASCAR's premier series. "That is not enjoyable. We look to race. We look to have good races, all that stuff. The worst thing in the world is dealing with penalties on Mondays and Tuesdays."

Now, though, those opening days of each week may be a little easier on Pemberton and the other top cops in NASCAR's Concord, N.C., office. Not too long ago, it seemed NASCAR was handing out its standard penalty for violations found on the new Sprint Cup car -- a 100-point deduction, a $100,000 fine and a six-week suspension for the crew chief -- with regularity. Between the vehicle's debut in March of 2006 and the summer event at Daytona International Speedway in 2008, eight teams were hit with the maximum for violations ranging from illegally mounted rear wings to unapproved bumper covers to front fenders pulled out a little too far. A number of lesser penalties, which included probation rather than suspension for the crew chief, were also assessed.

These days, those violations have all but disappeared. Although NASCAR continues to hand out fines and suspensions for a variety of offenses, it's been almost a year since inspectors have discovered an infraction on the new chassis worthy of a major penalty involving suspension. The last one came prior to last year's Coke Zero 400, when the roof on the No. 1 car of Martin Truex Jr. failed to meet specifications. Truex and car owner Teresa Earnhardt were each penalized 150 points, crew chief Kevin Manion was fined $100,000, and Manion and car chief Gary Putnam were each suspended for six weeks. That infraction was discovered in initial inspection on July 3, 2008, and the penalties were handed out five days later.

NASCAR hasn't suspended a crew chief for a new car penalty since. Have crew chiefs been scared straight? Have they quit trying to work the gray areas on a car encased in a tight, technological box? Have they figured out the extent of the vehicle's limits? The answer may be a little bit of everything. (Continued)