Let me begin by being up front that I am no Carl Edwards fan. I find him to be the obnoxious re-incarnation of Eddie Haskell. He has had repeated issues with other drivers having wrecked Elliot Sadler at Richmond some years back apparently on purpose, wrecking Jr. at Atlanta in 2004, almost taking Jr.'s hand off in retaliation for a Busch race wreck last year, and then fought with his own teamate on camera last year. Each time he smiled that poster boy smile and tried to act all sweet and innocent. Some may buy it...I don't.
Were the fines fair? Absolutely not. They should have given him apoints deduction equal to him having finished last. And maybe the blown engine today was just the final piece of karma biting Eddie in the backside. I guess since the crew chief has to pay the fine, the $100,000 fine is OK. Hope they pay that dude a hell of a lot of money.
So why am I so hard lined about this? Jeff Hammond gave a very good explanation of what happened with the oil lid and the effects losing that cover has today during Cup practice. The cover was held in by a singe screw instead of one on all four sides. The lip of the cover on the side opposite the screw slides into a channel. But if the screw comes loose, the lip is useless for holding the cover in place. I think it was probably attached to begin the race. But no one knows how securely it was tightened. If there had been four screws holding it in place, it is very unlikely that the cover would have come off. Also, Rousch apparently used the wrong fastener. The one they say was supposed to be used was self locking. I think it is likely that the cover was installed in a way that it had a high likelihood of coming off. Can't prove it but I bet everyone's lid is very securely tightened from now on.