Gordon Wins one of the two Qualifying Races

That was the good news yesterday afternoon. That win would put Gordon in the number 4 position to start the Daytona 500 this Sunday.

However Gordon's car was found to be too low in post-race inspection. As a consequence, he was relegated to the 42nd starting position on Sunday. NASCAR characterized the infraction as the result of an unintentional misalignment of a bolt and shock mount on Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet. Gordon was allowed to keep the win.

Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president for competition, said bolts had been misaligned on the rear shocks installed prior to Thursday's race. Once the race started, the load on those misaligned bolts caused the car's quarterpanels, but not the roof, to be lower than the minimum allowed height.

"Honestly, I think it's something a mechanic made a mistake on as he bolted the shocks on during the installation process," Pemberton said.

That's of little solace to Gordon, who wasn't happy to hear the news. "I hate to hear that. That sucks," he said before the violation was announced.

Pemberton added that NASCAR was convinced the infraction was unintentional, and that no fines or point deductions would be warranted. Gordon, a three-time winner of the Daytona 500, will vacate his fourth-place starting position and instead roll off 42nd.

"I would say that this would be the end of the penalties on the 24 car," Pemberton said.

That's a welcome change for NASCAR, which has doled out a season's worth of penalties over the last five days. The crew chiefs of Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Scott Riggs and Elliott Sadler were all banished from Daytona after illegal modifications were discovered on each of their cars during qualifying Sunday. The same day, Michael Waltrip's crew chief was suspended indefinitely for an illegal substance found in the manifold of the No. 55 car. All four drivers also suffered point deductions, and all four crew chiefs were hit with fines.