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Waltrip's Car Impounded; Kenseth, Kahne Times Disallowed
Jeff Wackerlin
Senior Editor

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Sunday wasn’t a good day for Michael Waltrip, Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth’s NASCAR NEXTEL Cup teams.

NASCAR impounded Waltrip's No. 55 NAPA Toyota and has disallowed the qualifying times of Kahne's No. 9 Dodge and Kenseth’s No. 17 Ford after today's qualifying session for the 49th running of the Daytona 500.

Prior to qualifying, Waltrip had the intake manifold confiscated from his No. 55 after NASCAR officials noticed a funny smell coming from the car during inspection.

"We might have an engine problem that is causing some blow by with the oil," Waltrip said prior to qualifying. They are not mad at us. We are not in trouble. They just don't know what happened and we don't either. We just started the motor with a new intake and it was fine."

After Waltrip posted the 24th fastest time in qualifying, NASCAR decided to impound the No. 55.

“We are going to go over that car with a fine tooth comb,” said Jim Hunter, Vice President of Communications. “I don’t know how long we will keep it.”

The intake manifold will be taken to the NASCAR Research and Development facility in Concord, North Carolina.

"As of now we don't know if that manifold is illegal, but we want to know," Hunter said.

Waltrip along with his teammate David Reutimann, who was the fastest Toyota on Sunday, need to race their way into the field in Thursday's Gatorade Duels. Dale Jarrett, the third car at Michael Waltrip Racing, has the past champions provisional to fall back on.

But as of now, if Waltrip plans on making the race he will have to bring out a second car.

NASCAR disallowed the times of Kahne (183.610 mph) and Kenseth (184.639 mph) after the two cars failed post qualifying inspection. Both cars will now have to start Thursday’s Duels from the back of the second race.

“We found unapproved devices in the opinion of our competition folks that it enhanced the aerodynamics of those cars,” Hunter said.

Both cars had holes in certain areas where they were supposed to be sealed, with the No. 17 confirmed to have a hole in the wheel well.

"I feel pretty confident that there will be additional penalties as it pertains to the No. 17 and the No. 9. We don’t know on the 55,” Hunter said.

Last year, Chad Knaus was ejected from Daytona, and then suspended three additional races after the No. 48 car failed post-qualifying template inspection in the rear window area.

In the opinion of the inspectors today the adjustments on the No. 9 and 17 looked more severe

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