HAMPTON, Ga.– Matt Kenseth fell afoul of an unusual rule in today’s race at Atlanta.
Despite leading 47 laps and having a strong car, the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was black-flagged by NASCAR for “improper fueling.” During his stop, the gas man engaged the fuel can with the fuel intake of the car and left a tool on the back of the car.
According to the NASCAR rule book, “The Fueler must be in control of the fuel can at all times when fuel is being added to the vehicle. The Fueler will not be permitted to perform any adjustments or other pit stop procedures while the fuel can coupler is engaged with the vehicle-mounted adaptor.” In other words, the gas can man can’t do anything other than hold the can while the car is being refueled.
As crew chief Jason Ratcliff protested the penalty, he failed to relay that his driver had been black-flagged. After failing to serve his pass-through penalty within three laps of being black-flagged, he was shown the black flag with white crosses. This meant he would no longer be scored until he served his penalty. After ignoring it one lap, he finally served the penalty and went from fourth in the running order to 32nd two laps down.
“I didn’t know we had any kind of problem. Nobody told me,” Kenseth said over his in-car radio. “Pretty much just threw our race away unless we get everything to fall in our lap.” Ratcliff said he couldn’t “see the black-and-white flag when I’m out of the pit box arguing the case.”
Kenseth would wind up finishing 19th two laps down.
