Matt Kenseth’s engine failed inspection after his win on Sunday at Kansas Speedway and NASCAR hit the No. 20 team hard this week with penalties.  Kenseth lashed back during his press conference at Richmond International Raceway on Thursday.

“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.” Kenseth added.

His argument is that there was “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.” Kenseth said.

NASCAR issued a statement earlier this week, in part.  “The No. 20 car was found to have violated Sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing); 12-4J (any determination by NASCAR officials that the race equipment used in the event does not conform to NASCAR rules); and 20-5.5.3 (E) (Only magnetic steel connecting rods with a minimum weight of 525.0 grams will be permitted; connecting rod failed to meet the minimum connecting rod weight) of the 2013 rule book.”

NASCAR penalized Kenseth 50 points and crew chief Jason Ratcliff was fined $200,000, suspended six races and will be on probation until December 31.  Kenseth will also not receive the three bonus “chase” points for the win if he makes the Chase.

“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.” Kenseth said.

The team was also penalized 50 owner points and the owner’s license on the car has been suspended for the next six races and the car will be ineligible to accrue owner’s points during that time.

“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.” Kenseth said.

The team will appeal the penalties and Kenseth is unsure of the outcome or process.

“I’ve never been through it so I honestly don’t know.  That’s the hope, that’s why it’s setup.  You’ve seen some examples of both.  I don’t know.  That’s what the hope is, that’s why it’s setup.  We’ll just go through that and see what happens and see whatever the final verdict is.  We’ll have to live with that and move on.” Kenseth said.

Denny Hamlin will remain out of the Joe Gibbs Racing No.11 at Richmond International Raceway this weekend as doctors say he needs to wait at least another week.

“Ultimately, we even talked about doing that here at Richmond, but it’s unfair to the team for me to get out and then go three or four laps down on pit road and really know that the team’s not going to finish any better than 35th. Why would they even show up for that?” Hamlin said.

After sustaining a compression fracture to his L1 vertebra at California Speedway on March 24, Hamlin is on track in his recovery, but not as fast as Hamlin would have wished. Hamlin said last week that he would like to return at Richmond, but per doctor’s orders, that was not possible.

“I saw the scan and saw the healing that they were talking about. However, some kind of in-plate is not healing the way that they wanted it and that’s what they wanted in order to clear me. Really, that was their determining factor and, obviously, my injury is very, very hard because there is no exact science to the risk.” Hamlin said.

“Obviously, we were hoping to be optimistic by coming here (Richmond) and my thought was that being a shorter track the chances of you taking the same hit again was substantially less, but it’s just all subjective and opinions.”

Hamlin planned to start at Talladega and then let another driver take over. Right now that plan is still reachable if the healing continues and if he is cleared by his doctors.

“They all came to the conclusion they were happy with me starting Talladega and getting out when it’s a safe time to get out.” Hamlin said.

If not, then Hamlin will move on to Darlington. “We will start our process at Talladega and then rescan again and try to go to Darlington.” Hamlin said.

Brian Vickers will continue to drive in his absence this weekend.