CHARLOTTE - NASCAR and Joe Gibbs Racing lowered the penalty boom on seven members of that racing team Wednesday after magnetic shims, designed to compromise a chassis dynamometer test, were found on the No. 18 and No. 20 Toyotas after Saturday's Nationwide race at Michigan International Speedway.

NASCAR suspended the crew chiefs, car chiefs and engine tuners on each team as well as a fourth crew member from the No. 18 team indefinitely.

In a statement issued after NASCAR announced its penalties, team owner Joe Gibbs said the team had decided to add to any NASCAR penalties "with the minimum being suspension for the remainder of the season for those involved, including our two Nationwide Series crew chiefs."

Those crew chiefs are Jason Ratcliff on the No. 18 and Dave Rogers on the No. 20.

Also suspended were car chief Dorian Thorsen, engine tuner Michael Johnson and crew member Toby Bigelow from the No. 18 team, and car chief Richard Bray and engine tuner Dan Bajek from the No. 20.

NASCAR fined Ratcliff and Rogers $50,000 each and took 150 driver points from Joey Logano, who drove the No. 18, and Tony Stewart, who drove the No. 20. Each team also lost 150 car owner points, cutting the No. 20 team's lead in the owner standings to 168 points over Clint Bowyer's No. 2 team at Richard Childress Racing.

Gibbs said "there will also be an additional monetary fine beyond the amount announced by NASCAR ... which will be the responsibility of those involved."

The entire teams, including both drivers, were also placed on NASCAR probation until Dec. 31. Gibbs said he was disappointed the drivers were put on probation "as they had no knowledge or involvement of this incident."

Gibbs apologized for the actions by the members of his team.

"A poor decision was made by some key members of our organization, and 100 percent of the blame rests with us," Gibbs said. "In 17 years, we have never had any representative of Joe Gibbs Racing knowingly act outside of NASCAR's rules, and that is something we consider essential to how we operate on a daily basis.

"What we have determined is that these individuals involved used extremely poor judgment in attempting to alter the results of NASCAR's dyno test. ... Although in no way was anything done that might have altered the race outcome, these JGR employees attempted to circumvent the NASCAR rule book, and that is unacceptable."

NASCAR impounded cars after the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series races at Michigan to test them on the chassis dyno, which measures horsepower being delivered by the engine to the rear wheels.

The shims were placed so to keep the throttle from being opened 100 percent during the test, apparently to keep the dyno from getting a true reading on maximum horsepower generated by the JGR-built engines.

Toyota teams, including JGR, objected strongly last month when NASCAR followed an earlier chassis dyno test with a rule change mandating that Toyotas used a carburetor spacer plate with smaller holes than those used on its competitors' Nationwide Series engines. By cutting the flow of air into the carburetor, the Toyotas were cut back by about 15 horsepower.

The two Gibbs teams won 13 of the 21 races held before the rules change and the first one after it was made. But neither of the Gibbs cars has won in the past three Nationwide races.

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