Beyond the Flag
Fansided

NASCAR: Matt Kenseth Should Be Forced To Forfeit New Hampshire Win

By Mike Hutton

Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

Matt Kenseth and his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 team escaped New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday with a win. Sort of. Post-race inspection revealed that the car was not legal. It is time for NASCAR to start sending a powerful message about cheating – as in making teams forfeit performances in such instances.

Matt Kenseth won the New Hampshire 301 on Sunday afternoon, but his car failed post-race laser inspection (LIS.) As the race winner, Kenseth’s car will be taken to the Research & Development center, examined more thoroughly on Tuesday morning, and any penalties to the driver and/or team will be announced on Tuesday or Wednesday. This week, penalties are likely to be announced on Tuesday, as NASCAR races on Wednesday night at Eldora.

This is NASCAR’s opportunity to send a strong message. Penalties of any sort in any sport are designed to make things whole again. Football issues yardage penalties, basketball grants free throws and hockey has a penalty box. NASCAR has in-race penalties as well to make things whole — pass-through penalties, going to the end of the longest line on a restart and loss of practice time are some examples. But what happens when a violation isn’t discovered until after the race is over? Even more, what if that violation is found to have been committed by the race winner?

While you can’t erase history and change the fact that Kenseth’s car finished first on Sunday, you can inflict penalties that will have that effect:

  • All points should be forfeited and no prize money should be awarded. It will be as though they weren’t even there. They can keep the lobster.
  • If the win would have qualified the driver for the Chase, that too should be taken away. In Matt’s case, he has another win this year (Dover,) so he can rest easy with some Wisconsin brats and cheese this week. He might need some of Danica’s Nature’s Bakery fiber-rich products to recover from such a diet, though.

There are several important reasons this should be done.

  1. The team has been previously warned for this same infraction. The No. 20 car failed LIS twice at Sonoma, twice at Charlotte and twice at Auto Club speedway. Those infractions occurred in practice and qualifying, so the car wasn’t allowed on the track until it had been made legal. Clearly, there is a pattern here.
  2. Other JGR teams have failed the same inspection on multiple occasions this season. The No. 19 of Carl Edwards failed twice at Auto Club Speedway and twice at Bristol and the No. 18 of Kyle Busch failed twice at Texas. Clearly, there is a pattern here. The No. 11 team of Denny Hamlin has not been penalized for LIS infractions so far this season, but there is still time. One could make the argument therefore, that this is a problem organizationally.
  3. Failing LIS usually means the body of the car is askew, resulting in increased side force aerodynamically. The effect of this on a short, flat track like New Hampshire Motor Speedway would be to allow the car to turn easier in the corners. Getting through the corners more effectively and getting back to the throttle off of them is a clear performance advantage, and one from which the other competitors should be made whole.
  4. NASCAR has maintained through the years that they want fans to know who won when they leave the race track and that they saw the results while there. We’re in a different era now, and while NASCAR can often be complemented for staying contemporary, this is an area where antiquated thinking needs to yield to today’s reality. Sure, 25 years ago such a penalty might not be known until a one-inch column ran on Tuesday on the last page of many newspapers’ sports section. Today however, 24/7 satellite radio coverage, Facebook, Twitter, etc. allow fans constant access to the sport. NASCAR can rest assured that fans will hear of any penalties that are levied.
  5. How do the other competitors feel knowing that NASCAR almost certainly won’t essentially void the win?  If you lose to a better car or driver, most folks can accept that. Everyone lost to a team that wasn’t playing by the same rules on Sunday, and Hillary Clinton wasn’t even in the race. Without a meaningful punitive response by NASCAR, it seems that such a result is being condoned by the sanctioning body. Don’t forget too, that Kenseth failed to obey a black flag earlier this season at Atlanta, and NASCAR stopped scoring him – another instance where it appears that his team feels they’re above the rules.

Earlier this season, the No. 5 car of Kasey Kahne (Dover) and the No. 42 car of Kyle Larson (Michigan) failed LIS during post-race inspection and were issued P3 level penalties, and were penalized 15 driver and owner points and the crew chief assessed a $25,000 fine. There is no reason to expect that the penalties will be different this time, and by losing 15 points, Kenseth will score 29 points for the event, and it will be as if he finished 13th.  That’s not enough.

Related Story: Winners And Losers From New Hampshire

If NASCAR isn’t willing to penalize Kenseth the 44 points he earned on Sunday, maybe they could just do this:

Home/Matt Kenseth