[Madison]

For what it's worth, we absolutely had no intent to ignore or break any rule and are fortunate that the people in Oregon and Seattle worked with us to let this mistake slide. Simply, I didn't read the bumper rules well enough and overlooked the restrictions on content.

Interestingly, we must've painted those bumpers three or four times to get them to look decent. They're not even good.

The inspectors in Oregon pointed out our error and showed us the rule we violated. We were prepared to to replace the fabric or strip the paint off again, but they were understanding about it and let it slide with the caveat that, should we attend the Championship, we'd need to be in compliance.

I hope that other teams were not annoyed by this transgression or by the leniency we were shown and can assure everyone that we don't expect to get away with anything, ever. It's flattering that someone would ever think of us as very good or respected, as we work very hard at being the best we can be. This time, we screwed up. I screwed up and I'm upset that it reflects poorly on my team. In retrospect, despite our inspector's generosity, we should have changed the bumpers anyway.

Sorry, guys. We'll be better.