As it turned out, Busch got a hefty fine for his pit-road shenanigans at Dover with Tony Stewart, but no jail sentence, errr, suspension.

Here we are, twenty-three days later. Hilton is free, and someone — or some two — is on the verge of being hauled away in Helton’s cruiser.

And these two scofflaws seem to have a far better chance at jail time, errr, suspension, than Busch did: Steve Letarte and Chad Knaus.

The crew chiefs for Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson should be expecting a phone call from Helton or Nextel Cup series director John Darby any time now.

You’ll recall that the two had their cars parked on Friday, forcing their drivers to miss qualifying at Sonoma. Both rebounded nicely with top-20 finishes, however.

But NASCAR doesn’t take kindly to people messing with its COT design. Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s team was dealt a stiff penalty — 100 driver points, $100,000 fine — for an illegal wing bracket at Darlington; Junior’s crew chief, Tony Eury Jr., still isn’t back from his suspension.

So when the Nos. 24 and 48 appeared in the inspection line with an unacceptable nose, the cars were parked and Letarte (pictured to Gordon’s left with an unidentified crew member) and Knaus should have known that they’d suddenly have a lot more time for golfing. (Hendrick Motorsports called the illegal nose a mistake with no intention of skirting the rules.)

Both figure to get at least a similar penalty like Junior’s team did. Letarte, with no criminal history (at least as far as Sheriff Helton is concerned), figures to get the same ban that Eury did.

Knaus is a trickier one to figure. He does have a felony in his file: an illegal modification during Speed Weeks last year; he missed the first four races of the season, but Johnson won two of them. If anyone’s going to get hammered by these penalties, chances are it’s Knaus.

Either way, it seems Hendrick’s top two teams are going to take a beating from NASCAR. Letarte has already proven himself a very skilled crew chief — think of that call at the rain-shortened Pocono race — but Johnson has shown he can win without Knaus.

Their suspensions will have the biggest effect. The point loss, especially if it’s only 100, would still keep Gordon in the lead and Johnson is still a long way from the danger zone of missing the Chase. The money? Like that’s ever a deterrent in any sport.

Paris sure wouldn’t miss $100 large.

But here’s the difference: She’s free.

Maybe she kept her cell tidy for the new jailed roommates, Letarte and Knaus.

• UPDATE: NASCAR has announced that Letarte and Knaus have been suspended for six races each (until mid-August) and that the teams have both been fined $100,000 and penalized 100 driver points. Rick Hendrick and Jeff Gordon, the listed owners of the No. 24 and 48, have also been docked 100 owner points.

These are the same set of penalties that were issued to Eury and the No. 8 team.

Knaus didn’t get the hammer like I thought he might. NASCAR is setting the bar fairly (relatively?) high for these teams. But chances are we’ll see at least one more COT infraction over the remainder of the year. The bar isn’t that high, after all.

(Photos by Nick Ut of the Associated Press [Hilton], Media General News Service [Knaus] and Marcio Jose Sanchez of the Associated Press [Letarte and Gordon])