• Robbie Reiser, crew chief for Kenseth, and Kenny Francis, crew chief for Kahne, were kicked out of Daytona International Speedway and suspended four races.
• Rodney Childers, crew chief for Riggs, and Josh Brown, crew chief for Sadler, were suspended for two races and will all miss Sunday’s race.
• Kahne and Kenseth were docked 50 drivers points apiece, while Riggs and Sadler lost 25 each.
• Reiser and Francis also were fined $50,000 each, while Childers and Brown were fined $25,000 each.

The suspensions were expected and are in line with Chad Knaus’ suspension last year for similar shenanigans, but docking the drivers points before the season even has started is unprecedented and guaranteed to raise some eyebrows.

I also apparently wasn’t paying much attention as I thought it was only Kahne and Kenseth that had run afoul of the authorities, but apparently Evernham Motorsports as a whole was looking for a little extra edge, as Sadler and Riggs also got hit with penalties.

As far as lasting effects, the suspensions likely won’t matter much, as Jimmie Johnson proved last year in Knaus’ absence, but losing drivers points definitely stings, especially for Sadler, who is more likely to be on the bubble of making the Chase than Kenseth or Kahne.

Obviously it’s way too early to know, as anything and everything will happen, but it’ll be interesting to see if those docked points ultimately play any role in who does or doesn’t make the Chase.

None of the stories I’ve seen so far mention any penalties for Michael Waltrip, who may have managed to grin and aw-shucks his way out of trouble, despite mysterious substances being found on his engine manifold.

That’s considerably faster than Greg Biffle’s pole speed of 172.403 for the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup race at LVMS, thanks mostly to the reconstruction that turned a 12-degree banking into a 20-degree banking on the big oval and moved pit lane closer to the frontstretch grandstands, making for a smoother transition from corner to straightaway.

“You’re going fast,” Kahne said. “We go fast at Charlotte, Texas and Atlanta. There’s a lot of tracks we go fast at. To me, the speed is good. … When we come back here (in March), it’s 80-85 degrees, it’ll slow down the cars some. It’ll just make for a slippery track, and that’ll help the racing.”

Most of the criticism in the past was that LVMS produced boring, single-file racing, so the early returns suggest that the changes should likely inject some speed and excitement, as far as more dynamic racing.