Historical Motorsports Stories writes:

"Holes In the Roll Cage, Death of a Team"

Posted by nascarman on January 6, 2019

Viewed 7282 times Tweet It's rare to see a team get a penalty so large they can't overcome it. Most teams appeal, then pay their fine. But in 2001, that didn't happen. Xpress Motorsports decided drop out of NASCAR after getting a penalty.





Tim Sauter's 2001 Xpress Car (jayski.com)



Xpress Motorsports was a team owned by midwest trucking executive, Steve Coulter. They entered the Truck Series in late 1996 and the following year won their first race at Mesa Marin. By 2001, Xpress was in their first full-time season as a Busch Series team with their new driver, Tim Sauter.



Their first 15 races in 2001 produced only two top-10s. Sauter entered the June 16th Kentucky event 20th in points with expectations that the team was getting better. Kentucky would turn out to be the last race they ran.



With less than 40 laps to go, Sauter crashed while battling for the 12th position. In the middle of the backstretch, Hank Parker Jr. hit Sauter in the right-rear and turned him into the outside wall. Sauter's car impacted the concrete hard with the right front and the crash ended his race. They finished 30th.



Upon NASCAR doing a brief inspection of the car back in the garage, officials discovered something shocking: Holes had been drilled at the welded joints in the rollbar. It had the appearance that the team was trying to reduce weight by compromising the structural integrity. In response, NASCAR issued a severe penalty by 2001 standards.



In a rare move, NASCAR stripped the team of their 30th place finish and credited them with finishing last. In addition, Sauter was fined 60 driver points and Coulter was fined 60 owner points. Crew-chief Dave Fuge was indefinitely suspended and fined $30,000.



For a team that was small to begin with, this penalty hit hard. Instead of paying the fine, the team decided to shut down. Even without the penalty, costs were too high to run in the Busch Series.



"It is very difficult for an independent team to run and be successful. It is hard to find a sponsor that can cover the high costs that come with racing in the Busch Series," Dave Fuge told Jim Utter. Just four days after the race, all equipment was for sale and the employees were released.



"Our main focus now is to help our employees find jobs," Fuge said. "All of our equipment is for sale, so we will be working to move all of it out."



In their defense, the team maintained the roll cage modifications weren't an attempt at cheating, Fuge and Coulter claimed the holes were for safety reasons. After the deaths of Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin, Tony Roper, and Dale Earnhardt within one year, the safety of the cars was questioned. The biggest concern was that they were too rigid. The idea was that in an impact to the front, the car would not absorb any energy and the driver would feel a stronger impact. By having small holes, Xpress claimed their cars could dissipate energy better and keep their driver safer.



Furthermore, they claimed the roll cage still met NASCAR's specifications. According to Coulter, NASCAR knew about the special roll bars as early as April but didn't do anything until the crash at Kentucky. Coulter was angered that their safety efforts were punished.



"NASCAR has made it real clear that if it weren't their idea to begin with, then they weren't going to bless it," Coulter told the Wisconsin State Journal. "They are really struggling with the safety issue. They don't have a clue what they're doing here."





Mike Bliss winning at Pikes Peak for Xpress

(Andy Cross/Denver Post via GettyImages)



But Xpress wasn't as dead as they initially claimed. Later in 2001, Dave Fuge was able to convince Coulter to return to the Truck Series where costs were less. In 2002 and 2003, they won back-to-back championships with Mike Bliss and Travis Kvapil.



At the end of 2004, Coulter sold the team to Fuge and they competed until the end of 2007. In 2009, the remnants were sold to Kyle Busch as the foundation for Kyle Busch Motorsports.





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