Kenseth: Penalties 'Unfair, Shameful'

By Ron Lemasters Jr.

Thursday at Richmond was the first time Matt Kenseth had been before the media since NASCAR tossed its rulebook at him and Joe Gibbs Racing, and even though Kenseth is mild-mannered, the results were fairly typical.

"I think the penalties are grossly unfair," Kenseth said of the 50-point knock he took in the driver's standings and the 50-point hit Gibbs got in car owner points. "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."

Kenseth also played up the fact that the engine was supplied to the team by Toyota Racing Development, and other than bolting it into the Toyota Camrey Kenseth drives, there was no team involvement.

"JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) had no control over it," he said. "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 penalties, which JGR has appealed, take Ratcliff off the box for six races and have a $200,000 price tag with them. Gibbs can't earn owner points for six races, which effectively kills any chance for the owner's title and could affect Kenseth if it ever comes down to provisional starting spots.

Kenseth said he didn't know what to expect from the appeals process.

"I don't know. I've never been through it so I honestly don't know," he said. "That's the hope, that's why it's set up. You've seen some examples of both. I don't know. That's what the hope is, that's why it's set up. 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."

NASCAR Responds

NASCAR VP of Competition Robin Pemberton was in rebuttal mode on Friday morning, answering questions about the severity of the penalties.

"Well, as everyone knows there are a few things that are understood in the garage area that are big," he said. "When you talk about engines, you talk about tires, and you talk about fuel.  That's a common thread that's been understood, and it's stood the test of time for the last 65 years.  Don't mess with those areas, the penalties are severe. The only time we really get a chance to look internally at an engine is post race.  Some of our most severe penalties over time have surrounded engine infractions."

Penmberton expounded on the role he and his department play in NASCAR, and it was interesting stuff.

"We're here to not judge these penalties, whether they are performance enhancing, but we're really here just to regulate the rule book," he began. "We've got the rules in play.  They're put there a lot of times by NASCAR, but with input from the teams, manufacturers and outside experts, and it's our job to manage those rules and manage that rule book as it relates to the garage area.  The emphasis, as everyone knows, it's about safety, it's about competition, and it's about cost containment. 

"So moving forward it's our job to just regulate the rule book.  In the rule book there are different facets and we've put parameters in that are weights, measures, heights, dimensions coordinates to build chassis and bodies, and it's in quite detail.  So the teams know where they can and can't go, and there are areas that they can work in.  Those are the areas between the measurements where we do give both ends of it, whether it's high or low or heavy or light. 

"That being said, it's like I said, we're not here to judge the performance on any of these.  We are strictly here to regulate the rule book and keep a level playing field for the garage area in which to work and make sure everybody gets a fair chance at competing."

By way of translation, that means: The rule said 525 grams minimum, and it came in at 522.3. End of story." 

As for the fact that the engine came from TRD, that wasn't a case of who made the mistake, just that it was made.

"We probably don't know all the details, but we do know they come from an outside vendor for the most part, and I don't know how you would...it's very difficult to go to an outside vendor and penalize them whether it's springs or shocks or parts that are bought and bolted on race cars.  That's why in today's world we all know and relate to the fact that it stops at the crew chief and stops at the owner and stops at the organization that is here to compete."