Dale Earnhardt Inc. officials are bracing for their penalty for presenting a car for Martin Truex Jr. that did not meet the roofline template during opening-day inspection last Thursday at Daytona International Speedway.

Truex's penalty is expected to be announced Tuesday.

Truex is 14th in the driver standings, just 88 points out of 12th, with eight races remaining until the 12-driver field is set for the Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup to determine the 2008 champion.

If NASCAR follows its recent penalty trend for template violations, it would dock Truex Jr. 100 or 150 points and suspend at least the crew chief, as well as possibly the car chief for six weeks.

NASCAR issued its harshest penalties when it docked the Haas CNC Racing teams 150 points and suspended both the crew chief and car chief when it confiscated the organization’s cars for an infraction at Charlotte.

When asked if the DEI infraction was in the same category as that of Haas CNC Racing, however, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby said, “I wouldn’t say that.”

“The 66 and the 70 [of Haas CNC] had devices on the car that gave the team the ability to change the car [after inspection],” Darby said. “The 1 car [of DEI] is much simpler than that. It was just built to where it didn’t fit the templates.”

DEI Vice President John Story said prior to the Coke Zero 400 on Saturday that he did not consider Truex Jr.’s chance of making the Chase to be over.

“It certainly made it a lot harder, that’s for sure,” Story said of the NASCAR action. “I’m not ready to say it’s an impossible situation, but it made it harder. That’s something that we really, really, really want for Martin and that whole 1 team.”

Story said there is a plan in place if crew chief Kevin “Bono” Manion and/or car chief Gary Putnam get suspended. Dave Charpentier and Kevin Buskirk, both of whom have Cup crew chief experience, work at DEI. Mike Greci, who has served as a DEI crew chief in the Nationwide Series, also could fill the role.

“The good thing for us is we have a pretty deep organization,” Story said. “If Gary and Bono were to stay home, that’s a huge blow to that team. Those guys are as good as they get in this garage, and there’s no doubt about that.

“Having said that, we have a lot of talented people right behind them who can step in and do a really good job.”

Story stressed that the violation was unintentional and that the templates used in the construction of the car at DEI could be different than the overall template NASCAR uses at the race track.

“We’re talking hundreds of an inch, but in fairness to NASCAR, they told us, ‘Here’s the box. Play within the box,’ ” said Story, whose team swept the front row in qualifying and had another car starting in the top 10. “And unfortunately and unknowingly, we got outside that box and they didn’t like it. The crazy thing is as good as our cars are running this weekend, how much better could it have been?”

DEI had three of its four cars in the top 17 at Daytona.

With Truex Jr.’s plans for next season still not finalized, Story did not think the car snafu would impact negotiations.

“You can see the disappointment written on Martin’s face,” Story said prior to the race. “He is disappointed. Like me, he knows that it wasn’t intentional, but I don’t think it will affect anything going forward.

“If anything, we’re proud of the fact that we’re trying to build great race cars and build all of our team great race cars. You come to a place like Daytona, and a lot of people have taken shots at our performance over the last year, and you come down here, and it’s all about the machine. It’s not just the engines; it’s the car. This is a handling race track. These cars have to be set up correctly.”