Yes... it had been a bit since I had started posting again this week. After the Denny Hamlin affair where he was fined for a benign comment comparing the gen-6 to the COT car learning curve, I had lost a bit of mojo for the sport.
It seemed over-reactive. Sure,
NASCAR wants to distance itself from the COT era, but that will happen with time, not with penalties that bring it more to light. And if Denny Hamlin never again gives a colorful answer to any question, I don't blame him.
Me and 90% of the fan base say shame on you NASCAR. Now just let it be and back off. You don't have to draw that line in the sand just because you started something you don't want to back off from.
Over the last few weeks I sat back and just watched some great racing.
I saw a race on a racetrack with some personality in the NASCAR Truck series (Rockingham) that was fun to watch. And Kansas surprised me this year too.
But this week the news is pretty big, especially in the fine department.
Matt Kenseth's team got nailed pretty hard for having an engine component (connecting rod) that was just over 2 grams too light from its allowable 525 gram minimum weight. And after winning a race to boot.
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The fines/penalties were
- 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
- Car owner Joe Gibbs has lost 50 championship car owner points (The Kansas win will not have bonus points attached)
- Owner's license for the No. 20 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car suspended until the completion of the next six championship points events (No owners points to be earned)
- Matt Kenseth lost 50 championship driver points
- The loss of five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Manufacturer Championship points.
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The message is clear, even if the NASCAR world was already fully aware, to not mess with the engine. (Or tires or the fuel.)
This brings up
the issue of having wins removed from illegal cars. I'm all in favor of such, when the situation warrants it. Other wise, the car/driver/team still benefit from an ill-begotten win.
That's not fair to the rest of the field. But that's just me and we know what NASCAR's practice is on the issue, so this is a moot opinion.
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Toyota has taken full blame for the Kenseth penalty. And we can all talk till we're blue in the face about this issue, but the bottom line was that they were caught with ONE connecting rod that was too light, and it did not create any kind of advantage, that anyone knows of. But the fine is there, to let the world know that messing with the engine is not a pretty thing to do.
Some have said that they feel it was an honest mistake while others have questioned why a light component was even in the garage area to begin with.
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What a season, with major players taking hits this early in the race season. Denny Hamlin is out with back issues, Matt Kenseth and team will be in a huge deficit of a points hole, and other fun. It's been a wild and whacky season indeed.
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So! My past observations have been that Kurt Busch tends to blow up on average, about once every 14 to 18 months. If this tendency holds true, I'm wondering
when the next Kyle Busch blow up is coming?
Last week at Kansas, after he exited the race early, he was doing that walk. You know the one. He's totally pissed, but the small, mature corner of his brain is screaming: "Just walk boyo! Keep your mouth shut and walk!" And he did, only stopping for the major media folks to answer a question or two, with the obvious and patented short answers that Kyle tends to give... pragmatic, to the point, and almost spilling over into nasty time.
So good job Kyle, on last weekend.
But did that push him to being just a little bit closer to that inner boiling point we all know he has? And being at Richmond just isn't going to help. This is an emotional track!
