Gordon, Johnson sent to back

With defending winner Jeff Gordon and teammate Jimmie Johnson sent to the penalty box by NASCAR, Jamie McMurray won the pole position Friday for the Nextel Cup race at Infineon Raceway on Sunday.

McMurray, driving a Ford for Roush Fenway Racing, posted a lap of 92.414 mph on the 1.99-mile, 10-turn course to earn the top starting spot in the Toyota/SaveMart 350.

Robby Gordon of Orange was second at 92.399 mph in another Ford.

“I really didn’t think [the speed] was going to hold up” to win the pole, McMurray said. “But I was really happy with my car.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. qualified third in a Chevrolet, and another veteran California road racer, Boris Said of Carlsbad, was fourth in a Ford.

Absent from qualifying were Gordon and Johnson, the Hendrick Motorsports teammates who have dominated the season so far with four wins apiece.

They were banned from practice and qualifying after NASCAR found that their Chevrolets had oversized front fenders, the latest in a series of rules violations that has plagued stock-car racing in recent years.

The two can drive in Sunday’s race, assuming their cars are properly repaired and pass another inspection today. But NASCAR ruled that both have to start at the rear of the 43-car field.

Gordon, a four-time Cup champion, is the only five-time winner of this race. Johnson is the reigning series titleholder.

Teams are using NASCAR’s new Car of Tomorrow chassis on the twisty Infineon Raceway course for the first time this weekend, as part of the car’s phase-in before it becomes mandatory in 2008.

Despite a long tradition of cheating in stock-car racing, NASCAR repeatedly has warned them not to make any changes to the Car of Tomorrow, which was developed mainly to improve driver safety and foster closer racing.

“We’re going to keep this car in check,” said NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston. “It’s important to know that all cars in the field are starting out equal, and all have the same opportunity to win the race.”

Those caught making unauthorized changes have received stiff penalties, and the Gordon and Johnson teams also are expected to be hit with additional penalties early next week.

Earnhardt, the sport’s most popular driver, last month was docked 100 championship points and his crew chief was suspended for several races after NASCAR found his Car of Tomorrow had an unauthorized rear-wing assembly at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.

The latest incident could slow the strong momentum enjoyed by Hendrick. The team has 10 wins in 15 races, and Gordon leads the point standings.

The top dozen drivers in points after 26 races qualify for the series’ Chase for the Cup, a 10-race playoff to determine the season champion.

The cars of two other Hendrick drivers, Kyle Busch and Casey Mears of Bakersfield, passed inspection Friday morning.

But the Gordon and Johnson cars did not pass because their front fenders were too wide, said NASCAR officials, who measure the cars with metal templates to ensure they conform to the rules.

Johnson crew chief Chad Knaus acknowledged that the teams tweaked the fenders in “an area where we thought we may be able to find more front down force” that would make the cars go faster.

“We thought we could, and obviously we can’t,” said Knaus, who was at the center of another cheating scandal in 2006 at the Daytona 500, a race Johnson won anyway with a substitute crew chief.

Doug Duchardt, Hendrick’s vice president of development, said “this whole process is a new one for us” because teams are still learning the Car of Tomorrow. He said the fenders in question reflected “the latest evolution” of Hendrick’s development.

“I feel badly if some of our success this year is tarnished based on what’s happened today,” Duchardt said.

The infractions also added to a roller-coaster week for Jeff Gordon, whose wife gave birth to their first child Wednesday.

Gordon said “nothing is going to ruin my day, or weekend, because I’m on cloud nine.” But he conceded “this definitely puts us into a box. We’re going to have to work our way out of it.”

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Many expect Juan Pablo Montoya, the former Formula One driver who migrated to NASCAR late last year, to be a top contender on the road course Sunday. But Montoya qualified only 32nd in his Dodge for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.

David Gilliland of Riverside also struggled, qualifying 38th in his Robert Yates Racing Ford.

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james.peltz@latimes.com