Perhaps it’s because so many cars have been running askew in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series, with rear wheels making right turns, as engineers find gray areas in which to push the envelop within NASCAR’s specs for it’s new-fangled, winged car.

Or perhaps it’s because some teams haven’t gotten the memo about areas in which there’s no gray area and no envelope — such as that wing.

Whatever the reason, Haas CNC Racing apparently pushed the limits to the breaking point in the run-up to the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday and got hit big-time for violations.

NASCAR levied fines and punishment Wednesday to the team, which had both of its cars impounded and found to have illegal modifications to the wing.

So despite the successful rules-bending by Roush Fenway and Penske racing with the skewed cars, NASCAR made another strong statement about what happens to rules violators.

Haas CNC lost 150 owners’ points for both cars, putting the No. 66 on the brink of being out of the top-35 in points and the guaranteed starting spot in each race. The 66 is a mere five points ahead of Penske’s Sam Hornish Jr., whose car appears to be turning even as it drives straight.

The drivers of the Haas cars — Scott Riggs (66) and Johnny Sauter (70) — lost 150 drivers’ points apiece, and crew chiefs and car chiefs for the cars — Bootie Barker and Derick Jennings for 66 and Dave Skog and Thomas Harris for the 70 — got six-race suspensions, with Barker and Skog getting $100,000 fines as well.

In addition, NASCAR’s keeping the cars.

And I expect that at some point, NASCAR will set some limits on skewed cars running “sideways,” as they say in NASCAR-speak.

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