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When Matt Kenseth won the STP 400 he was elated. The second win of the year for the 2003 Sprint Cup Champ virtually locked him into NASCAR's playoff's called the Chase.
Then on Wednesday NASCAR lowered the boom on his team when it found one connecting rod (out of eight) was less than three grams underweight.
NASCAR fined the crew chief, Jason Ratliff $200,000 and suspended him for six races. Worse the Joe Gibbs Racing team would be denied owner's points for six races.
On Thursday in Richmond, Virginia, the two-time Daytona 500 winner was not happy.
"I think the penalties are grossly unfair. I think it's borderline shameful,” said Kenseth.
“There's no argument the part was wrong. They weighed it and it was wrong. However, there is an argument that there certainly was no performance advantage,” he continued. “Certainly to crush Joe Gibbs like that -- to say they can't win an owner's championship with the 20 this year is just, I can't wrap my arms around that, it just blows me away.”
On Wednesday Lee White, president of Toyota Racing Development which supplied the engines, said that TRD “screwed up.” A third party vendor had delivered one connecting rod which was underweight, and despite the fact that all the parts were over the minimum weight NASCAR imposed one of the most severe penalties in history.
Brad Keselowski, the defending Cup champion - coincidentally whose team was hit with heavy penalties last week reacted “yeah, I think there's no doubt that there's been a pretty significant ratcheting effect to the penalties in the sport. It takes a lot to really surprise me nowadays, whether it was the penalty we received the past week or the one that happened to the Gibbs group. I understand both sides, in a sense, but then again I don't. I think it's really tough.
"What the sport really lacks right now is a way for us to curb fair play - balance the fair play that the sport needs so that our fans can really relate to it without presenting this - I don't want to call it an illusion - but presenting this almost like a façade as though there's cheating in the sport. I think it's pretty obvious that when you look at Matt's issue the pieces and the parts were not that influential to the performance, and probably didn't win him the race,” he said.
As result of the penalties Kenseth said "my excitement for tonight is at an all-time low. It just is right now. By tomorrow, I'll be ready to get on the track and I'll race and try to have fun tonight and give it my all. I have a lot of work to do tonight and tomorrow morning and get ready to get in the Cup car and go out and win a pole and try to win the race."
Then on Wednesday NASCAR lowered the boom on his team when it found one connecting rod (out of eight) was less than three grams underweight.
NASCAR fined the crew chief, Jason Ratliff $200,000 and suspended him for six races. Worse the Joe Gibbs Racing team would be denied owner's points for six races.
On Thursday in Richmond, Virginia, the two-time Daytona 500 winner was not happy.
"I think the penalties are grossly unfair. I think it's borderline shameful,” said Kenseth.
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| Matt Kenseth and Crew chief Jason Radcliff. (Photo: NASCAR) |
“There's no argument the part was wrong. They weighed it and it was wrong. However, there is an argument that there certainly was no performance advantage,” he continued. “Certainly to crush Joe Gibbs like that -- to say they can't win an owner's championship with the 20 this year is just, I can't wrap my arms around that, it just blows me away.”
On Wednesday Lee White, president of Toyota Racing Development which supplied the engines, said that TRD “screwed up.” A third party vendor had delivered one connecting rod which was underweight, and despite the fact that all the parts were over the minimum weight NASCAR imposed one of the most severe penalties in history.
Brad Keselowski, the defending Cup champion - coincidentally whose team was hit with heavy penalties last week reacted “yeah, I think there's no doubt that there's been a pretty significant ratcheting effect to the penalties in the sport. It takes a lot to really surprise me nowadays, whether it was the penalty we received the past week or the one that happened to the Gibbs group. I understand both sides, in a sense, but then again I don't. I think it's really tough.
"What the sport really lacks right now is a way for us to curb fair play - balance the fair play that the sport needs so that our fans can really relate to it without presenting this - I don't want to call it an illusion - but presenting this almost like a façade as though there's cheating in the sport. I think it's pretty obvious that when you look at Matt's issue the pieces and the parts were not that influential to the performance, and probably didn't win him the race,” he said.
As result of the penalties Kenseth said "my excitement for tonight is at an all-time low. It just is right now. By tomorrow, I'll be ready to get on the track and I'll race and try to have fun tonight and give it my all. I have a lot of work to do tonight and tomorrow morning and get ready to get in the Cup car and go out and win a pole and try to win the race."