The congratulations, handshakes and pats on the back for Matt Kenseth and his teammates on Joe Gibbs Racing’s Dollar General team had just wound down when the words rang out like a shrill whistle through the New Hampshire Motor Speedway media center speakers.
The post-race tests were complete. The No. 20 lead car failed LIS inspection. The rest of the cars – the remaining top-five finishers and a random pick – were clean.
A win that was set to serve as another dominant notch in JGR’s belt was suddenly shrouded in skepticism. Reporters who had just typed the last word in stories praising Kenseth and his team began writing the first ones in stories criticizing them.
Kenseth and his team, however, are safe. NASCAR doesn’t take wins away from its rule breakers, violators, benders or skirters. But it’s worth wondering if it should.
“Maybe this is the time to up the penalty a little bit to get people’s attention,” former Cup champion Dale Jarrett said. “If this is something race teams are doing to make their cars better, than they are getting a slight advantage.”
Kenseth isn’t the first driver to fail the LIS – laser inspection station – inspection, and earlier cases suggest the two-time winner this year won’t get away unscathed. In June, Kyle Larson failed after a third-place finish in Michigan and was docked 15 points while his crew chief was fined $25,000. Kasey Kahne’s car flunked after a fourth-place finish in Dover in May. Same penalty.
Kenseth became the latest in the doghouse when it was revealed that his Loudon-conquering car violated the legal parameters at the inspection station. Details are still unknown, though ESPN’s Bob Pockrass wrote that the station measures “tire camber, axle housing, alignment, rocker panels and the main frame rail.”
So Kenseth, whose car was taken to Concord, N.C. for further evaluation, will almost certainly hear from NASCAR as soon as today, as will his crew chief, Jason Ratcliff. But the way the Chase for the Sprint Cup is set up, the punishment, if it falls in line with previous cases, will be more a slap on the wrist than a punch to the gut.
Kenseth can be penalized points and docked dollars to record-breaking amounts, and it wouldn’t make a dent on his championship hopes. With two wins and a 247-point cushion on 30th place in the standings, Kenseth is a practical lock for the Chase.
A points penalty would be costly to a Trevor Bayne or Ryan Blaney who’s fighting to stay on the Chase bubble. But for Kenseth, whether he has 521 or 506 points going into Indy, his picture for meaningful fall racing stays just as rosy.
If there’s a reason for NASCAR to change its policy, that’s where it is. Under the current system, drivers who are safely in the Chase can tweak and bend the rules without any fear of costly repercussion. Whether you get away with it or not … you’re still getting away with it.
Removing wins for illegal cars wouldn’t hurt Kenseth in this case, but it would be serious enough to scare most teams. Wins are hard to come by and are vital commodities. The threat of losing something you’ve worked so hard to earn would be terrifying for most teams.
Still, making the policy stricter isn’t a slam-dunk decision. For one, violating the rules doesn’t necessarily amount to cheating. Kenseth’s Camry could have been a hair off in any of the measurements and it would have been enough to flunk the car. That could very reasonably be an innocent mistake or oversight – worth punishing, for sure, but not worth potentially ruining a season over.
It’s happened before – at NHMS, no less. Clint Bowyer earned a huge win in the first Chase race in 2010 at the Sylvania 300, one that could have set him up for a run to a title. Instead, word came down that his Chevy was off on its frame by 60 thousandths of an inch.
Bowyer failed, he lost 150 points in the Chase standings and his crew chief, Shane Wilson, was banned for six weeks. Bowyer never recovered. And he was livid.
“The biggest thing I didn’t understand about it, is the car passed post-race inspection,” Bowyer said, according to ESPN. “Then it gets back to (North Carolina), and they do things that no one understands or knows much about.
“It was a bum deal. I truly believe that in my heart.”
NASCAR paid the price for bringing the hammer down in 2013 – with Kenseth involved, even. Kenseth lost 50 points and Ratcliff for six weeks for an overweight engine part, and Penske’s Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski lost 25 points for other violations.
The draconian stance didn’t hold up. An appeals process hacked all three punishments down, costing NASCAR for its aggressiveness.
So there are perils to raising the stakes. But failed tests – particularly those involving cars dominating the field, as the Gibbs Toyotas have been – will continue to raise the question of whether only a stricter sentence will curb teams going a little too far in search of an extra edge.
NASCAR might be doing enough already. But with each guilty team, the calls for change will only grow.
(Drew Bonifant can be reached at 369-3340, abonifant@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @dbonifant.)