John Andretti's Engine Declared Legal

Andretti's engine clears inspection

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (April 12, 1999) NASCAR officials announced today that after a thorough postrace inspection of John Andretti's Richard Petty-owned Pontiac, the results of Sunday's Food City 500 NASCAR Winston Cup Series event at Bristol Motor Speedway will stand. Andretti's engine was held by NASCAR overnight for further evaluation after Sunday night's postrace inspection. The No. 43 finished fourth in Sunday's event, the eighth top-5 of Andretti's career.

"The process to determine the exact compression ratio is very precise," said Mike Helton, senior vice president and chief operating officer for NASCAR. "In the case where the finding is so very close to being legal or not legal, it is NASCAR policy to be as correct as possible before our final decision. In order to maintain the integrity of the post-race inspections, we will develop even more exact practices and procedures to finalize the inspections in a credible and timely manner."

The results of Monday's continued postrace inspection showed a compression ratio which met NASCAR rules as described in Section 20 Rule 5.4 Article C of the 1999 NASCAR Winston Cup Series rule book:

"For all events, the maximum allowable compression limit permitted on any cylinder will be 12.0 to 1 on all engines."

Source: NASCAR Online