Nationwide Series officials confiscated the carburetor from David Reutimann’s No. 99 Nationwide Series Toyota, but the odd thing about it is they do so on Tuesday and it escaped media notice until Friday. The carburetor’s venturis (opening) were too large, meaning more air could pass through, possibly generating additional horsepower.

Reutimann was allowed to qualify and race in today’s Camping World 300 - he started 18th and finished 14th—but his team, along with several others whose cars failed inspection either before or after qualifying, faces sanctions next week.

I talked to Nationwide Series director Joe Balash on Friday night and tried to get a sense for whether Michael Waltrip Racing could have made an honest mistake with the carburetor violation, and all he would say is that infractions and possible penalties won’t be considered until early next week. Last year, Hall of Fame Racing got nabbed for bringing and illegal carburetor to the Daytona 500, and it turned out that somebody with Joe Gibbs Racing, which supplied the team’s engines, had pulled the wrong part off of a shelf when assembling the motor.

Lee White, general manager of Toyota Racing Development, said that NASCAR officials normally measure the carburetor openings from the top but decided to measure them this time from the bottom. Reutimann’s carburetor did not meet specifications.

Among the other teams that face penalties next week are Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 5 Chevy team. NASCAR officials impounded the No. 5 car on Thursday night, then returned it Friday minus the rear deck lid and spoiler.

“We just got caught doing something everbody else is doing,” Earnhardt said after finishing third. “I don’t know, someting on the spoiler, deck lid, everything. ... We just put one from the backup car on there. We didn’t get the springs and stuff set in there right, so we had to cut the chain on the first caution pit stop.

“The car was about three-eighths of an inch high all day. That’s kind of why we were happy to kind of be third. We were kind of behind once we got caught cheating there.”

It’s possible Michael Waltrip Racing’s people, including crew chief Jerry Baxter, didn’t know there was anything wrong with the carburetor. MWR gets its Nationwide Series engines from Triad Racing Development, a partner company of Toyota Racing Development that’s owned by Bill Davis Racing.

Reutimann finished second in the Nationwide (formerly Busch) Series standings last year and is running the series full-time again. His main competitors for the championship are fellow full-time Sprint Cup drivers Carl Edwards (the defending champion), Clint Bowyer and David Ragan.