NASCAR official "Jimmie Johnson's C Post "looked" wrong"

NASCAR's inspection procedure is a rigorous process.   Sometimes it takes hours.  It should take hours.  

NASCAR regulates so much of the structure of the car, all in the interest of making the cars more equal.  They don't want any manufacture or driver to have an unfair advantage over any of their competitors.

So why is it that the C-post on Jimmie Johnson's car was deemed illegal after only a visual inspection?

The C-post is the area in the photo that is not painted.  Upon NASCAR informing the team that the part wasn't legal, the 48 crew immediately contacted the Charlotte offices and a new piece was flown to Daytona.  It was put in place and the car was allowed to race. None of the other HMS cars, those of Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Kasey Kahne, was found to be in contravention of the rules.

Ttoday Hendrick Motorsports made it clear that they will appeal any kind of fine or penalty.  It seems that even with all the tools and templates built to measure the parts and pieces of a Sprint Cup car, why is it the C-post was deemed illegal after only a visual inspection, as HMS claims?

It appears the gloves are off.  

The area in question appears to be the area Chad Knaus was referring to in a comment to Jimmie Johnson, on the radio, last year at Talladega.  His instructions, basically, were for Jimmie to make sure he damaged the car enough so that an accurate measurement of the area couldn't be made.  No action was taken against "Cheatin' Chad" at the time, as the audio instructions weren't specific enough.  However, NASCAR did bring Hendrick cars back to the R&D facilities for tear down.  The car is Jimmie's restrictor plate car and is used at both Talladega and Daytona, so perhaps whatever Chad was referring to remains on the car?  It appears one NASCAR inspector feels that way. 

Of course, NASCAR says that idea is preposterous.  Mike Helton has already said that we should expect some kind of penalty after the running of the Daytona 500.  He says that any car is open for inspection, template, visual, audio, all means of inspection, whether it is on the track or in the garage.  Robin Pemberton has said NASCAR's goal is simply to ensure that all cars fall within the parameters dictated, and any car found not to be will be dealt with. 

Yep, the gloves are off.