Concord, N.C. ? Roush Racing is considering an appeal of NASCAR’s 25-point penalty against Mark Martin and team owner Jack Roush.

Martin finished second Sunday in the Winston Cup race in Rockingham, but his No. 6 Ford failed postrace inspection because the left-front spring did not meet the minimum number of coils.

The driver was docked 25 championship points, Roush lost 25 car owner points and crew chief Ben Leslie was fined $5,000.

Martin, hoping to win his first series championship, is second in the standings with two races remaining and had cut series leader Tony Stewart’s points lead to 87. The penalty dropped him 112 points behind heading into Sunday’s race in Phoenix.

Geoff Smith, the team president, said Tuesday, “We are evaluating all avenues of recourse available to us, including invoking the NASCAR appeals process, and have asked our outside counsel to assess our options for recourse against the manufacturer and distributor of the spring.

“We quite naturally are upset that we received exactly the same penalty as that imposed on two other teams that altered springs with the expectation of obtaining a performance advantage.”

The team has until Nov. 13 to appeal the penalties in writing to the National Stock Car Racing Commission.

“Twenty-five points for using an unaltered spring that had no performance difference from a spring a quarter-inch longer; I feel like we just got the death sentence for shoplifting,” Martin said.

“Everyone in the garage knows that it was an honest mistake and provided absolutely zero advantage at that track. … This is a pretty steep penalty for what is essentially a meaningless violation.”

Leslie said the team used a spring made by a NASCAR-approved manufacturer exactly as it came out the box.