NASCAR drops hammer on Kenseth, raising questions about engine-related penalties
Following his win at Kansas Speedway, NASCAR deemed Matt Kenseth’s motor to be illegal. A connecting rod was found to be approximately 2.7 grams underweight when NASCAR weighed it during the tear down of the race winning No.20 car from Kansas. The other seven connecting rods were each a few grams to the good and perfectly legal.
As a result, they practically did everything BUT take the win away from Kenseth and his team.
- Crew chief Jason Ratcliff has been fined $200,000 and suspended from NASCAR until the completion of the next six NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship points events (a period of time that also includes the non-points NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race) and placed on probation until Dec. 31.
- Car owner Joe Gibbs has lost 50 championship car owner points; the first place finish from April 21 at Kansas Speedway will not earn bonus points toward the accumulated aggregate car owner points total after the completion of the first 26 events of the current season and will not be credited towards the eligibility for a car owner Wild Card position; has had the owner’s license for the No. 20 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car suspended until the completion of the next six championship points events, therefore being ineligible to receive championship car owner points during that period of time.
- Driver Matt Kenseth has lost 50 championship driver points; the Coors Light Pole award from April 19 at Kansas Speedway will not be allowed for eligibility into the 2014 Sprint Unlimited; the first place finish from April 21 at Kansas Speedway will not earn bonus points toward the accumulated aggregate driver points total after the completion of the first 26 events of the current season and will not be credited towards the eligibility for a driver Wild Card position.
- The loss of five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Manufacturer Championship points.
Now in looking at these penalties, you could say that they are double of what Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano received – six week suspension, $100,000 fine and 25 points. It was determined in a previous article here at Speedway Media that those penalties were fair, when compared to those of the No. 48 team. If you missed the article, click here to read it.
So why was this penalty worse?
Well, the engine is one area that NASCAR does not like teams touching more so than others. It’s considered sacred ground. The last time a team was penalized as such for a penalty was in 2009. Carl Long’s engine was .17 cubic inches to big in NASCAR opinion and rule book. As a result, he as issued the following penalties:
“As a result, crew chief Charles Swing has been fined $200,000, suspended from the next 12 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship events, suspended from NASCAR until Aug. 18 and placed on NASCAR probation until Dec. 31.
“Driver Carl Long and owner Danielle Long have been penalized with the loss of 200 driver and 200 owner points, respectively, suspended from the next 12 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship events, suspended from NASCAR until Aug. 18 and placed on NASCAR probation until Dec. 31.”(Jayski.com)
With 50 points under the new system being equal to 200 points under the old system, it looks as though the penalty is equal. Consistancy once again displayed by NASCAR.
However, there is a problem.
See, Joe Gibbs Racing gets their motors from Toyota Racing Development (TRD). TRD has actually taken full responsibility for the problem in stating that it as an oversight in their part. TRD’s vice president told USA Today that they get their rods from another company and request them to be over the minimum weight allowance. This was an oversight in one that got through the system and was part of Kenseth’s motors.
JGR has stated that they will appeal and one of the things that will be said in that appeal is that of the above. They will state it wasn’t their fault.
So when it comes to a situation like this, what to do?
It wasn’t something that was done as a performance advantage as one rod lighter than the other seven does not do that. It was a simple oversight in production. Do you just let it slip with light penalties, say 6 or even 25 points with probation?
It also wasn’t that of JGR’s fault, but do they accept responsibility as soon as they put their trust in TRD?
If you want to put the blame into the right account, how do you do so? Do you penalize TRD a substantial fine and warn them that future issues with motors could result in teams they work with receiving penalties?
Let’s also recall that JGR switched from Triad motors to TRD and has since experienced some noted engine failures, despite the success. Does this put a hinder on the relationship and cause JGR to go back with Triad motors?
With the amount of penalties as of late and the appeals that are forth coming, there are many questions to be asked and a lot to happen in the next few months. Can you say that the race to the Chase will be filled with these storylines?
Comparing the JGR & Penske Racing Penalties: Did NASCAR Make The Right Call?
In the past two weeks we’ve seen two big teams get hammered by NASCAR for illegal parts. The administration certainly isn’t messing around this year, if you are found in violation of their rules no matter what the circumstances surrounding it are, you will be punished harshly. I fully agree with the Penske penalties but I do not agree with how hard they came down on JGR and Matt Kenseth. If anyone should have received a larger punishment, it should be the No.2 and No.22 because they purposely tried to get a performance advantage by manipulating the rear ends of their racecars. The No.20 issue was simply a mistake on the part of TRD and there was no malicious intent whatsoever.
During pre-race inspection at Texas, officials found that Penske Racing had messed with the rear end housings of their cars attempting to get them to skew which was outlawed by NASCAR at the start of this year. Both the No.2 and the No.22 barely made it to the grid in time for the race and Brad Keselowski was very vocal following the event. He was quoted saying,
“I have one good thing to say, that’s my team and effort they put in today in fighting back with the absolute bulls— that’s been the last seven days in this garage area. The things I’ve seen over the last seven days have me questioning everything that I believe in, and I’m not happy about it. I don’t have anything positive to say and I probably should just leave it at that. There’s so much stuff going on…you have no f—— idea what’s going on, And that’s not your fault and that’s not a slam on you. I could tell you there’s nobody, no team in this garage with the integrity of the 2 team. And the way we’ve been treated over the last seven days is absolutely shameful. I feel like we’ve been targeted over the last seven days more than I’ve ever seen a team targeted. But my guys kept their heads on straight and they showcased why they are a winning team and championship team. We’re not going to take it. We’re not going to be treated this way.”
NASCAR surprisingly did not penalize Keselowski for those incensed comments but they weren’t bashful about dropping the hammer on the team for their rear end housing infraction. They suspended the crew chiefs, the car chiefs, team engineers and the team manager for six weeks. They also fined the crew chiefs $100,000, took 25 points away from Brad and Joey and placed all the team personal that they suspended on probation until December 31st, 2013. What these guys did was play in the gray area and ended up stepping on NASCAR’s toes. They aren’t bad, they aren’t cheaters, they are just doing their job. Every team from all eras has always tried to find an advantage by playing in iffy territory. It’s nothing new and every team does it, some just do it better than others. When you mess around in the danger zone, you’re eventually going to get bit and that’s what happened here. I have no remorse for them and feel the penalties are fully justified.
When it comes to Joe Gibbs Racing and their ground shattering punishment, a large contingent of people out there including myself feel NASCAR went too far. A connecting rod was found to be approximately 2.7 grams underweight when NASCAR weighed it during the tear down of the race winning No.20 car from Kansas. The other 7 connecting rods were each a few grams to the good and perfectly legal. There are areas on a racecar that are considered sacred ground and not even the likes of Chad Knaus would dare mess with them. That’s the tires, the fueling system and the engine. As a result, NASCAR dropped the hammer hard in a penalty that ranks right up there as one of the biggest ever. Crew chief Jason Ratcliff was fined $200,000 and suspended for six races, an astonishing 50 points were taken away, Matt won’t get chase bonus points for the win and can’t use it as a WC either, the owners license of Joe Gibbs has been suspended for six weeks, the pole won’t count towards the 2014 Sprint Unlimited and Toyota loses 5 manufacturer points.
One connecting rod 2.7 grams underweight gives no advantage and in fact, it throws the engine slightly out of balance which could hurt overall performance. It was an error made by TRD when creating the parts and nothing more. NASCAR doesn’t look at it that way though and although I don’t like it, I can understand that. If they started basing penalties on the exact person who was in the wrong, it would bring in an infinite number of variables and it could get very messy. This case in particular exemplifies one that would be a black and white but a lot of them wouldn’t be. In order to maintain consistency and integrity, they have to police each case basically using tunnel vision. They can’t factor in the all the details; just simply look at it and say this piece was in violation of this rule therefore we will issue the appropriate penalties. This is when the appeal committee comes in handy though. They are separate from the NASCAR officials who initially hand out punishments and they base their decisions after hearing the team’s explanation for why they were in violation of the rules. With this particular situation, I think JGR has a good chance to reduce the penalties. It’s actually a pretty solid system that NASCAR has put in place and works very well most of the time.
I still firmly believe that TRD should have gotten more of a punishment though. Penske pushes the limits trying to gain an advantage and gets caught but their penalty is less than a team that had an issue with a manufacturer supplied part that didn’t even help performance of the car. That doesn’t make sense to me. It looks like they came down harder on JGR because they raced with the “illegal” part and won with it unlike Penske whose blunder was caught before the race even began. TRD took full blame for the error but the responsibility falls on the shoulders of the teams in the eyes of NASCAR. Matt Kenseth wasn’t pleased with how hard his team was hit and had this to say regarding the penalties:
“I think the penalties are grossly unfair. I think it’s borderline shameful. 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. If you can find any unbiased, reputable, knowledgeable engine-builder and if they saw the facts, what all the rods weighed. The average weight of all the rods was well above the minimum — 2.5 (grams) above the minimum at least. There was one in there that was way heavy. There was no performance advantage, there was no intent, it was a mistake. JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) had no control over it. 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. And the same with Jason Ratcliff (crew chief). I don’t feel bad for myself at all, but for Jason and Joe, I just couldn’t feel any worse. There’s no more reputable, honest hard-working guys with good reputations more so than those two — I feel really bad for them.”
The Penske Racing appeal will be held May 1st at the NASCAR R&D Center and no one expects their punishment to be reduced in any way. They appealed not because they thought they could win, but because they wanted to have some time to find appropriate replacements for their soon to be sidelined seven high profile team members. JGR is also appealing the penalties issued to them and like I said before, they do have a fighting chance. The date of their appeal hasn’t been set yet but my guess would be that it would take place the week leading up to Talladega or possibly the week following it.
I’m sure all of you out there have your own sentiments regarding these highly controversial incidents so feel free to voice your opinions below!
Previewing The Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway
NASCAR heads back to its roots this weekend with some Saturday night short track action! Richmond International Raceway (RIR) has been around for a long time and always produces fantastic races. Its history dates all the way back to 1946 when it was a 1/2 mile dirt track hosting open-wheel races. The name of the venue back then was actually Atlantic Rural Exposition Fairgrounds. NASCAR showed up in 1953 with Buck Baker taking pole position and Lee Petty winning the race over Dick Rathman.
After Lee won the first ever race ran at RIR, his son Richard went on to be the most successful driver in the track’s history winning 13 times. The Petty tradition continued with Kyle Petty winning his first NASCAR Sprint Cup (NSCS) race at the famous short track in 1986. The legacy ended in a tragic way with Kyle’s son Adam racing at Richmond in the Nationwide Series (NNS) just 7 days before losing his life during practice crash at Loudon. His 16th place finish at RIR was the last time he ever raced. Another family with quite a history at Richmond are the Earnhardt’s and 4th generation racer Jeffrey will get his shot to show what he can do in Uncle Jr.’s car this weekend in the NNS race.
Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth seem like the fastest guys out there this year and here are some stats so you can see where they stack up against their competitors at Richmond…
Richmond International Raceway Track Facts
Track Size: 0.75-miles
Banking/Turns 1 & 2: 14 degrees
Banking/Turns 3 & 4: 14 degrees
Banking/Frontstretch: 8 degrees
Banking/Backstretch: 2 degrees
Frontstretch Length: 1,290 feet
Backstretch Length: 860 feet
Race Length: 400 laps / 300 miles
Track History & Records
Inaugural Race Winner: Lee Petty over Dick Rathman
Most Wins By a Driver: Richard Petty (13)
Most Wins By a Team: Petty Enterprises (15) followed by Hendrick Motorsports with 10 and Joe Gibbs Racing with 9
Most Wins By a Manufactuer: Chevrolet (35) followed by Ford with 28
Youngest Race Winner: Richard Petty at 23 years, 9 months and 21 days in April of 1961
Oldest Race Winner: Harry Gant at 51 years, 7 months and 28 days in September of 1991
Most Starts Without a DNF: Kevin Harvick (24)
Won First Career NSCS Race at Richmond: Tony Stewart (August of 1999) & Kasey Kahne (May of 2005)
Least Amount of Cautions: 1 in 1960, 1962 & 1970 (*Number of Cautions Not Recorded in 13 Events*)
Most Amount of Cautions: 15 in May of 2003, May of 2009 & September of 2011 (*Number of Cautions Not Recorded in 13 Events*)
Richmond Qualifying Stats
51 drivers have won a pole at Richmond, led by Richard Petty and Bobby Allison (8) Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin lead all active drivers (5)
Seven drivers have won consecutive poles at Richmond & Bobby Allison holds the record for most consecutive poles with five (1972 – 1974)
The pole is the most proficient starting position in the field, producing the most winners than any other starting position (22)
35 of the 113 (30.9%) Cup races at Richmond have been won from the front row: 22 from the pole and 13 from second-place.
90 of the 113 (79.6%) Cup races at Richmond have been won from a top-10 starting position.
11 of the 113 (9.7%) Cup races at Richmond have been won from a starting position outside the top 20.
The deepest in the field that a race winner has started was Clint Bowyer who started 31st in Spring of 2008
Youngest Pole winner: Brian Vickers 20 years, 6 months and 21 days in May of 2004
Oldest Pole winner: Mark Martin at 53 years, 3 months and 19 days in April of 2012
Buck Baker won the inaugural pole award at Richmond in 1953 with a speed of 48.465 mph
Track Record: Brian Vickers with a lap of 20.772 (129.983mph) in May of 2004
Top 10 Driver Ratings at Richmond
1.) Denny Hamlin………………………. 117.8
2.) Kyle Busch…………………………. 113.9
3.) Kevin Harvick………………………. 111.1
4.) Clint Bowyer…………………………. 98.5
5.) Tony Stewart…………………………. 97.9
6.) Jeff Gordon………………………….. 96.6
7.) Mark Martin…………………………… 92.6
8.) Ryan Newman……………………….. 92.0
9.) Jimmie Johnson…………………….. 90.4
10.) Kurt Busch……………………………. 88.6
Best Average Finishes Among Active Drivers
1.) Kyle Busch————-5.4 (16 races)
2.) Denny Hamlin——–8.1 (14 races)
3.) Clint Bowyer———-9.6 (14 races)
4.) Tony Stewart———-10.4 (28 races)
5.) Ryan Newman———11.6 (22 races)
6.) Kevin Harvick———11.7 (24 races)
7.) Mark Martin———–11.9 (54 races)
8.) Dale Earnhardt Jr.—-13.9 (27 races)
9.) Jeff Gordon————14.4 (40 races)
10.) Carl Edwards———14.9 (17 races)
Most Wins Among Active Drivers
1.) Kyle Busch—————-4 (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012)
2.) Tony Stewart————3 (1999, 2001, 2002)
3.) Jimmie Johnson——–3 (2007, 2007, 2008)
4.) Dale Earnhardt Jr.—–3 (2000, 2004, 2006)
5.) Clint Bowyer————2 (2008, 2012)
6.) Kevin Harvick———-2 (2006, 2011)
7.) Denny Hamlin———2 (2009, 2010)
8.) Jeff Gordon———–2 (1996, 2000)
9.) Kurt Busch————1 (2005)
10.) Kasey Kahne——–1 (2005)
Most Top 5’s Among Active Drivers
1.) Mark Martin—————18
2.) Jeff Gordon—————-16
3.) Kyle Busch—————-12
4.) Tony Stewart————-11
5.) Dale Earnhardt Jr.——9
6.) Jeff Burton ————–9
7.) Denny Hamlin———-7
8.) Kevin Harvick———-6
9.) Ryan Newman———-5
10.) Jimmie Johnson—–5
Most Top 10’s Among Active Drivers
1.) Mark Martin————–30
2.) Jeff Gordon————–25
3.) Tony Stewart————19
4.) Jeff Burton————–16
5.) Kevin Harvick———15
6.) Ryan Newman———13
7.) Kyle Busch————-13
8.) Dale Earnhardt Jr.—-11
9.) Bobby Labonte——–10
10.) Matt Kenseth———10
Laps Led Among Active Drivers
1.) Jeff Gordon————–1415
2.) Denny Hamlin———-1390
3.) Tony Stewart———–950
4.) Jeff Burton————–942
5.) Kevin Harvick———-942
6.) Kyle Busch————–891
7.) Dale Earnhardt Jr.—–494
8.) Ryan Newman———-450
9.) Mark Martin————449
10.) Carl Edwards———-442
Kyle Busch is by far the best choice when looking at the history at this track and all of his 2013 success doesn’t hurt his chances either. In his last 8 races at Richmond, he has won half of them and finished inside the top six in all but one of them. In fact, in 16 career starts at RIR, Kyle has finished 6th or better in 13 of them and no worse than 20th. He is without a doubt my #1 pick this weekend and even with the controversy surrounding JGR right now, that won’t hinder him at all Saturday night. Historicity, Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart are also good picks but I’d be wary of Tony for obvious reasons. Stewart-Haas Racing has been awful this year and this is easily the worst start to a season the 3x NSCS champion has ever had to endure. Bowyer and Jr. on the other hand are off to decent starts and could be contenders this weekend.
A surprising name that you don’t see up in these rankings is Jimmie Johnson. People would think that there is no track he hasn’t dominated but it’s been feast or famine for him at Richmond. He may have three wins but he also has eight finishes of 23rd or worse and has finished outside the top 10 in 14 of his 22 starts. Paul Menard is off to an awesome start in 2013 sitting 9th in the standings but he has a miserable record at Richmond. In 12 starts, he’s never finished in the top 10 and has posted results of 26th or worse 10 times; hat’s 83% of his races! A couple other drivers that may struggle are Kasey Kahne, Brad Keselowski, Jamie McMurray, Martin Truex Jr. and Brian Vickers who all have average finishes of 18th or worse.
The race will be run under the lights like it has been for the past 20 years or so. Track position is the key to staying in contention at this fierce Virginia short track and rarely do we see green flag pit stops but they do happen every so often. When they wreck, it’s usually a couple cars making contact or a massive pileup at the end of a straightaway like we saw with Jeff Gordon a couple years back. Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer are last year’s race winners and don’t be surprised if you see either one of them win it again. The track record set by Brian Vickers back in 2004 will most likely fall with the introduction of the Gen-6 cars and as if these drivers weren’t already riding the ragged edge; now they will be going even faster! The race can be seen live on your local FOX station with the green flag flying at approximately 7:45pm est. time this Saturday.
Erik Jones impresses early in career with Kyle Busch Motorsports
Last year when ARCA lowered their age limit t0 15 years old, Erik Jones became the youngest driver to ever start in an ARCA race.
This year, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series officials lowered the series age limit to 16 for tracks 1.1 mile or smaller and the road courses. Jones once again made history, becoming the youngest driver to run a Truck Series race.
In process of making that history, Jones has impressed as he finished top 10 in both of his starts so far – Martinsville and Rockingham.
“They’ve been good,” he said. “Happy with it so far.
“Going to Martinsville was a new experience for me. Getting used to a new team and a new car, getting used to working with them and a new track, too. So going there was cool.”
At Martinsville, Jones would qualify 19th and worked his way steadily through the field avoiding the wrecks to finish ninth.
“It was a fun track,” he commented. “We had a longer day qualifying 19th – not what we wanted – but actually getting into the top 10 in my truck race was good.”
At Rockingham, he would have problems with the front end of the truck hitting the race track, resulting in a last place qualifying effort. Though he used all 205 laps to his advantage as he would make his way through the field to finish ninth once again.
“We had a little unfortunate qualifying run – truck hit the race track and really slowed our lap down and qualified dead last,” he summarized the day. “So made for a pretty long day and working with our way up through there and going a lap down at one time, getting our lap back but we ended up in the top 10.
“We’ve been solid in our first few races with KBM. We’ve had fast Toyota Tundras the whole time so I need to work on qualifying better and we’ll be in the contention more of the day instead of working at just getting up there.”
A driver as young as Jones embodies the reasons that Kyle Busch had in starting Kyle Busch Motorsports as Busch wanted to bring in young drivers and give them a shot.
“It’s pretty neat to see the young talent and that’s kind of the whole point in having a Kyle Busch Motorsports, having a Late Model program, having a Truck Series program, having a Nationwide Series program,” Busch said in an interview in February. “We’re trying to help bring that younger talent to NASCAR.”
Before the age limit was lowered, Jones had been in talks with KBM about possibly doing some late model races.
“Then when the series changed the minimum age, we wanted to run some trucks for someone,” Jones said. “Luckily, we ran against Kyle and ended up winning against Kyle. So that really opened the door for us to get in touch with KBM and run some truck races for them.”
In the late stages of the race, Jones was able to pass Kyle Busch for the victory in the Snowball Derby at 5 Flags Speedway. Known as one of the crown jewels in short track racing, the win meant a lot to Jones and his team.
“It really a big win for us,” he commented. “2012 was a trying year for us – we had a lot of parts failures, lot of bad luck. Going down to the Derby and it all came together for one of the biggest win of my career and it was really big for me and my team in getting that momentum back on our side at the end of the year like that.
“Being able to win that race was something that I wanted to do ever since I learned how big the Snowball Derby was.”
In working with Kyle Busch, Jones says that the Sprint Cup Series driver and team owner is really helpful.
“I talk to him before every race at a track that I haven’t been to and also tracks that I have been to, to just get his opinion,” Jones said. “He’s more than helpful, more than anything you can ask for help. He’s very open to help.”
Jones also says that it great to have teammates like Joey Coulter and Darrell Wallace Jr. to share information with.
“I can’t share as much information, but I try to share as much as I can during the weekend,” he said. “We talk about what the trucks are doing and whether they did something and fixed it if they’re having the same issue. That’s why it’s very helpful to have teammates to be able to share more and more information.”
Jones’ next start with KBM will come in June at Iowa Speedway, which he says he is looking forward to as it should be a “really good track for us.”
When he’s not behind the wheel of a truck, Jones will return back to the ARCA Series with Venturini Motorsports to race at Pocono Raceway and Kentucky Speedway.
“Getting able to get back in arca car this year is great, espically with Venturini,” he commented. “They are a strong contender pretty much every track that they go to so looking forward to getting in their cars, espically at Pocono and Kenucky. I’ve never been on a big mile and a half- 2 mile track like that so being able to getting on a track like that is a big opportunity for me.
“Hopefully I’m able to get on there and learn a lot of stuff about bigger race tracks. Hopefully we can pick up our first ARCA win.”
Jones started racing at the age of seven in quarter midgets, before moving to Street Stocks when he turned 12.
At the age of 13, he moved up to Late Models and last year, attracted the eyes of Venturini Motorsports, running 10 races for them last year. In those 10 races, the young driver was able to score five top 10 finishes.
With the way his career has gone so far, many are wondering when the Bryon, Michigan native is going to move up to the next levels in NASCAR. Jones says that it’s kind of hard to say.
“When I got into late models, I kind of had a timeline planned out – I would look at that timeline and set goals for myself with where I wanted to be at this time,” he said. “When I was 17,18 years old I wanted to be running trucks. When I was 20 years old I wanted to be running Nationwide.
“In five years, I’d really like to be running Nationwide, maybe even Cup. The ultimate goal is to be racing. If I can be driving racecars, that’s all I can ask for.”
