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No, there's not going to be a penalty for those who laid back at Talladega
Advocating for a penalty for the three Joe Gibbs Racing cars at Talladega? Stop. It’s baseless and a waste of your time.
NASCAR vice president Steve O’Donnell said Monday there would be no penalties for Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth. The three teammates finished 28th-30th on Sunday and advanced to the third round of the Chase by doing so. There was no need for the three to try to finish in the top 15 after engine failures to the cars of Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. earlier in the race.
“I’d say they do not fall into (the 100% rule),” O’Donnell said Monday during his weekly appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Satellite Radio’s The Morning Drive. “The spirit of that rule is really to prevent somebody from intentionally allowing anther teammate to do something that would not be in the spirit of the rules of the race.
“In this case, we look at that as a strategy decision that the team made. They executed it. It’s obviously part of the format. It’s a decision that they made during the race. But in this case, that wouldn’t be something that we look at that violates that rule.”
The “100 percent rule” was added when Michael Waltrip Racing was caught manipulating the fall Richmond race in 2013. Clint Bowyer spun and Brian Vickers pitted to make sure that Truex Jr. — then driving for MWR — would make the Chase. But MWR wasn’t the first (and certainly not the last) team to have teammates employ a non-winning strategy to benefit another car. The poor execution of the team’s plan is largely why it got caught and penalized by NASCAR.
What JGR did on Sunday isn’t close to what MWR did. None of its cars attempted to cause a caution or affect anyone else’s finishing position. The three cars that lagged in the back simply did so because it was in their best interests with the points being reset following Sunday’s race.
Don't hate the player… Hate the game.
— Kyle Busch (@KyleBusch) October 24, 2016
But there’s a vocal subset of NASCAR fans, especially on Twitter, who want the JGR cars punished despite common sense defying their ridiculous assertions. Here’s a sampling of those complaints.
@KR0PPY9 @NickBromberg nope not me. I've supported @NASCAR but if those three cars arent penalized I am done
— Stacey Chiampas (@TASDAGREEK) October 23, 2016
@bobpockrass they were not trying to achieve the best finish possible nor racing at 100% but I'm sure NASCAR will turn a blind eye
— travis (@travisparks24) October 24, 2016
@dustinlong Get your head out of the sand…it was intentional sandbagging. No respect for any driver or team that doesn't show up to race
— Anthony Murphy (@AnthonyM501) October 24, 2016
@jeff_gluck They looked like a bunch of grannies chaperoning a middle school dance. Ridiculous.
— Meg Caprino (@calicobayfarm) October 24, 2016
@gofordrew @bobpockrass I hope the competition committee does something about it docks points of fines
— rick banks (@rickbanks2003) October 24, 2016
@dustinlong @NASCARonNBC @NASCARTalkNBC Wrong! fans don't pay to see drivers "hang out" in the back. they cheated the fans today.
— John Wingrove (@WingroveRacin52) October 24, 2016
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
