KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Chad Knaus walked out of the No. 48 transporter Friday morning and faced a phalanx of reporters for the crime of being within NASCAR law.

He hadn't broken any rules. He hadn't incurred any penalties. But in an inspection at the NASCAR Research and Development Center, series officials found the measurements on the No. 48 team's race-winning Dover car to be closer to the tolerances than normal. Given Knaus' reputation and the rumor-mongering nature of the Sprint Cup garage, the issue had morphed into a full-fledged controversy by the time teams arrived at Kansas Speedway.

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We've worked really hard to clean up the reputation of this 48 team, and we're going to hold that to the highest regard and the highest integrity.

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CHAD KNAUS

According to NASCAR, the sanctioning body brings the race winner and a random vehicle back to the R&D Center for further inspection, a practice that began with the implementation of the current Sprint Cup car. This week, those cars belonged to Jimmie Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin, the top two drivers in the Chase. Although nothing was out of line, officials found the vehicles to be pushing the limits of NASCAR's allowed tolerances, and notified them accordingly.

Knaus said his car had incurred some damage in the Dover race, which may have been one reason behind the closer-than-normal measurements. Both cars were found to be near the allowed tolerance limits in "a handful of areas," Knaus said. But ultimately the vehicles were legal, according to NASCAR, and later returned to the team.

"There's a tolerance for everything," Knaus said. "As long as you're within the tolerance, you're fine. But once you start getting close to that line, you've got to make sure you understand why, and that's what we're trying to do. There have been other teams in the garage that have been over [to the R&D Center], and [NASCAR] has said, 'Hey, you guys are pushing it, you need to get to work.' This is just unfortunately the first time we've had that."

According to NASCAR, it's not unusual for the sanctioning body to alert teams that they're getting too close to the tolerance limits. Knaus called such a thing "preventative maintenance." He and Johnson each stressed that the warning from NASCAR did not imply that they were cheating.

"We weren't cheating, because the cars were not found illegal," Johnson said. "It's not uncommon for cars to stick around the tech center to be measured. The tech center has ways to measure the vehicle that the teams don't have. So they're doing their work and collecting their data and all that stuff, and the cars were there being inspected. Believe me, if they weren't legal, they wouldn't have been released. It is what it is. I hate that it's drawing speculation and concern. But the cars passed tech, and here we are." (Continued)