From my understanding, ROAR states that you have to move up to Pro if you have or you get a chassis sponsorship. Any protest should have been before the mains. The times they ran were no faster during the mains then what they qualified at. So wheres the sandbagging, I could see it if they purposely ran slower times during the quals then picked it up during the mains. The RD should have reviewed the times before the start of the mains.
Its a BS statement to say that just because someone has a sponsor they should be required to run pro. Manufacturers take allot of things into consideration when they sponsor drivers. Just about every driver I know has some kind of sponsor.
I guess its just easier to change the rules after the fact just because the outcome wasn't what you wanted