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Matt Kenseth OK with inspection rules change but wishes it was made earlier
Matt Kenseth sees why NASCAR made the changes it did to the penalty structure surrounding laser inspection but would have liked to see the change made before the Chase began.
NASCAR said Wednesday there would be no more minor penalties for teams whose cars fail laser inspection on the rear of the car. Both Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr.’s cars failed inspection by a slight amount after Sunday’s race at Chicago and NASCAR made the decision to penalize neither team after coming to the realization Johnson’s penalty would be much more impactful than Truex’s because Truex won the race.
“Personally, I’m okay with the change,” Kenseth said Friday. “I feel like maybe we should have changed it a couple months ago. I’m okay with that going forward, but I’m not so sure how I feel about no penalties because we all knew what the rules were last Sunday and what the penalties were if you broke those rules and then to come out a week later and say, ‘Okay, well, we changed our mind. There isn’t those penalties for the rules.’ I’m not sure how I feel about that.”
“I’m okay with the rules being changes going forward. I’m always okay with whatever they want to come up with as rules as long as we all know what they are ahead of time and we all know what the penalties are ahead of time for breaking those rules.”
The Sprint Cup Series races at New Hampshire on Sunday, the track where Kenseth won at in July. His car failed laser inspection after the race and he was assessed a minor penalty. But just like Truex at Chicago, the minor points penalty didn’t affect Kenseth’s win and its use in the Chase.
We agree with Kenseth’s sentiments about inspection wholeheartedly. Per NBC Sports, his team said his laser inspection failure in July was from damage in a celebratory burnout. Truex’s team has contended there was a high probability that on-track contact led to its inspection failure. Yet Kenseth was still penalized via the rules system that was in place entering the race while Truex was not.
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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!
