First impressions can be everything and Michael Waltrip and Toyota have introduced themselves to NASCAR in a very regrettable way. Sport officials did some early spring cleaning this year suspending Waltrip’s crew chief, David Hyder and competition director, Bobby Kennedy, indefinitely after finding Sterno, a substance illegal to NASCAR, in the engine of Waltrip’s car during Sunday’s qualifying for the Daytona 500.

Sterno Canned Heat™ is that bluish jellied crap they light to keep buffet serving trays hot, a fuel made from denatured and jellied alcohol. It also apparently has the ability to provide a hotter, cleaner burn inside a car’s engine to create more horsepower when introduced to the cylinder. After we heard NASCAR gave Hyder the opportunity to install a new manifold after it was found prior to Sunday’s qualifying, we’re making the assumption that David Hyder and Bobby Kennedy aren’t the sharpest tools in the box, simply because when time for re-qualifying came around the same substance was discovered again.

NASCAR officials impounded the car and had the intake manifold sent to NASCAR’s Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C. The entire car now will be sent to Concord for further investigation. Waltrip was allowed to use his backup car for Wednesday’s practice but never got it approved to get on the track.

Meanwhile, general consensus of the owners and drivers of the other four teams was that the penalties were too harsh. Specifically Ray Evernham, who compared the penalties to the “death penalty for a speeding ticket.” Although we understand and appreciate the value of rule and regulations here at 0-60, in the spirit of nitrous injected, twin turbo, vehicular lunacy we would of loved to see TRD get away with it.