Nascar Rules

[rockit]

Only one chance at green-white-checkers

[the H team]

Lap 189-One attempt at a green-white-checkered finish only due to darkness coming. next fl&g ends the race. the race gets decided by the scoring loop, if another caution happens.

[the H team]

and they're off., Matt's in the lead.

[rockit]

Unreal David Ragan sweeps the weekend

[the H team]

Carl takes the lead.

[the H team]

David Ragan & David Gilliland win 1, 2.

[the H team]

wow what a finish! the top 10 are

David Ragan
David Gilliland
Carl Edwards
Michael Waltrip
Jimmie Johnson
Regan Smith
Matt Kenseth
Martin Truex Jr
Scott Speed
Aric Amirola

[the H team]

after being a lap down & getting the free pass at the last caution, Jeff finishes 11th & Jr finishes 17th.

[rockit]

Saturday night at the Track Too Tough To Tame

The Lady in Black

[the H team]

Saturday night at the Track Too Tough To Tame

The Lady in Black

YES! another saturday night race. my fav. see you in Darlington.

[the H team]

Big Congrats on your 2nd PINK HEART, ROCKIT!

[the H team]

nite all

[rockit]

Thnx Enjoy the rest of the evening!!!

[the H team]

Panel opts to decrease heavy sanctions against Kenseth, No. 20 team
Related: Appeals panel's statement | Up to Speed video from R&D Center

CONCORD, N.C. -- The majority of the penalties against Joe Gibbs Racing and the No. 20 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team of driver Matt Kenseth were reduced Wednesday by a three-member appeals board.

In a case heard at the sanctioning body’s Research and Development Center, the panel ruled for the most part in favor of JGR for an engine infraction discovered following Kenseth’s April 21 Cup win at Kansas Speedway.

2013 Sprint Cup Standings
Rk.	Driver	Points
1.	Jimmie Johnson	383
2.	Carl Edwards	342
3.	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	324
4.	Matt Kenseth	317
5.	Clint Bowyer	316
6.	Brad Keselowski	314
7.	Kasey Kahne	299
8.	Aric Almirola	293
9.	Paul Menard	290
10.	Kyle Busch	285
11.	Greg Biffle	280
12.	Kevin Harvick	276
13.	Martin Truex Jr.	269
13.	Jeff Gordon	269
15.	Jamie McMurray	267
16.	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	256
17.	Ryan Newman	242
18.	Joey Logano	237
19.	Jeff Burton	235
20.	Kurt Busch	231

After a meeting that lasted more than six hours, the panel issued the following changes to NASCAR’s original penalties:

• Kenseth’s loss of 50 championship driver points was reduced from 50 points to 12; all other penalties were rescinded, meaning Kenseth’s Kansas win will count toward his total should he qualify for this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. The ruling also allows the victory to apply toward wild-card eligibility for the Chase.

• Joe Gibbs’ loss of 50 championship car owner points was also reduced from 50 to 12 and the suspension of his car owner’s license was rescinded.

• While crew chief Jason Ratcliff’s fine of $200,000 was not altered, the panel chose to reduce his suspension from six events to one. He will, however, be on probation following his reinstatement through the completion of the next three points events.

• The panel increased the loss of manufacturer points for Toyota from five to seven.

Members of the NASCAR Stock Car Racing Commission appeals panel included Denis McGlynn, CEO of Dover Motorsports, former team owner Jack Housby, and Mark Arute, GM and COO at Stafford (Conn.) Speedway.

“This has been a tough, tough week for everyone and certainly no one wanted this to happen,” Gibbs said after the ruling was announced. “We’re committed to make sure that it never happens in the future.

“I want to emphasize, after going through this process, we have great respect for our sport and in particular NASCAR. All of us at Joe Gibbs Racing are committed to being good partners and we want to race with NASCAR forever.

“We’re going to work extremely hard with TRD to make sure that this never happens again. Right now, we just want to get back to racing.”

Kenseth echoed the sentiment of relief from his Twitter account: "Glad to have today behind us so we can get our focus back on racing. I respect NASCAR and the appeals process, I feel like they got it right."

Said NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp: "Our sport has a due process system in place that has served the sport very well for more than 65 years. That due process resulted in this decision here today. While we are disappointed in today’s outcome, we stand firmly behind our inspection process. The inspection of engines, and engine parts and pieces has always been regarded as the Holy Grail throughout the industry. That, along with fuel and tires.

"And in violations such as these, we have no other recourse in the reinforcement process than to penalize the team owner and team members. That’s how our system works. The responsibility of such infractions fall on their shoulders. Our intensity and approach to inspecting engines will not change. We take this ruling and we move on to Darlington."

Inspection of the No. 20 team’s engine at the R&D center following the STP 400 revealed one of eight connecting rods measured approximately two grams below the minimum weight of 525 grams specified in the NASCAR rulebook.

JGR, which competes with manufacturer support from Toyota, uses engines supplied by Toyota Racing Development (TRD) out of Costa Mesa, Calif.

The points penalty originally dropped Kenseth, the 2003 series champion, from eighth to 14th in the points standings. In the two races since Kansas, Kenseth rose to 11th in points with top-10 finishes at Richmond and Talladega.

The bump in points will put Kenseth fourth in the latest driver standings behind series leader Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

[the H team]

Driver pens open letter on his website

Related: Penske appeals coverage | Recapping Talladega
Editor's note: Brad Keselowski published an open letter to David Ragan on his website, http://www.bradracing.com, Tuesday afternoon to apologize for his comments following Sunday's race. Below is the letter in its entirety.





"I finally had a chance to digest what happened at the end of the Cup race at Talladega on Sunday. I owe David Ragan and his fans an apology. I placed blame on David Ragan for the restart lineup confusion when it wasn’t his fault.

"I was very passionate about the finish because I thought we had a chance to win the race if I restarted the race in the 10th position instead of ninth. Passion is a very important characteristic to a champion driver. That passion is not something I will apologize for. The outside line -- the 10th spot, in particular -- was a huge advantage over the 9th position. David executed that positioning perfectly for the win.

"I know first-hand what it’s like to take a lower-budget team victory lane. My comments were never to detract from their victory. They were only to express my opinion that I thought we had been wronged.

"Basically what happened is that, when the yellow came out at lap 184 the lineup was supposed to be Scott Speed, myself and David. We were actually lined up David, Scott and me because we were unsure what the lineup was. NASCAR did not change this before opening pit road so by procedure we were lined up in the proper positions. NASCAR made a last-minute lineup change that we missed as we were getting ready to go back to green. David attempted to make it right by letting me go at the start/finish line with one to go. I thought he was attempting to change the pylon because the order is supposed to be set before pit road opens.

"With the multi-car wreck, the rain and the impending darkness it is easy to see how NASCAR could have made that mistake.

"It was a confusing time for all of us. I want to send a sincere congratulation out to David Ragan and everyone at Front Row Motorsports. It was a very cool win for our sport.

-- Brad"