In what might be Matt Kenseth’s final season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, his chance at a second championship went asunder because of a simple rule infraction.
Having been collected in the multi-car melee in Turn 2 on Lap 198 of the Hollywood Casino 400, he took his car to pit road for repairs. After some hesitation, a seventh man with an electric saw started working on the left-front wheel well.
During the red flag, while Kenseth was parked down pit road (away from his stall), NASCAR deemed what his team did a “too many men over the wall” violation. Because he was still on the five-minute damaged vehicle clock when the violation occurred, Kenseth was sent to the garage and, by extension, parked for the rest of the race.
As a result, he wound up missing the cut to the Round of 8.
“I don’t know what any of the rules are,” a frustrated Kenseth said. “Seems like we got a lot of stuff that kind of gets, you know, changed so often I honestly can’t keep up with it. My head kind of spins from putting lug nuts out of pit boxes to one to many guys over the wall, you’re not allowed to race anymore. I just don’t get it to be honest with you.
“I really don’t have a lot good to say right now. I’m more than disappointed. I’m just gonna say thanks to DeWalt. They’ve been a sponsor of mine off and on for 20 years. Awesome guys there. They deserve better than this.
“We showed some flashes of brilliance this season, been off and on, been fast at times, had great pit stops at times, just haven’t been able to put it all together like a championship team needs to. Unfortunately, this is an example of that. I hope that I can do a better job here the next four weeks and hopefully go get a win.”
Kenseth ended up in this predicament when, on the Lap 198 restart, Erik Jones got loose, overcorrected back up the track and violently slammed the outside wall.
Kenseth got into the left-rear corner of Aric Almirola, who was reacting to the wreck ahead, and turned him. This got him loose and spinning towards the outside wall, further exacerbated by Austin Dillon getting into the right-rear corner of his car. This stopped him from hitting the wall, but he spun down onto the apron and into the destroyed car of teammate Daniel Suarez, doing damage to his left-front.
“I didn’t see the wreck. I was racing real hard on the bottom. Had Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. outside of me and racing a guy in front of me. I never saw the wreck until, basically, it was too late. So by the time I noticed everybody checking up, I started checking up and I think I got ran over and just spun out. I was just stuck in it. I didn’t see it in time.”
Kenseth leaves Kansas Speedway 10th in points.
