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NASCAR Explains Martinsville Penalty Controversy · Kenny Wallace Media

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  Obviously we look at all the video, you know, and as I back
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  up on that and you go back two years ago when we had the
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  situation with Ross here, we went to Phoenix.
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  There was a lot of dialogue with the drivers that that's not a
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  move that we want to have to make on the last lap.
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  We were able to get through Phoenix and and had a great
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  championship race that year in the all season meeting with the
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  industry, meeting with our drivers.
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  And to a man, that was not a move that, you know, they want
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  to have to make. So there was language in the
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  rule book. And when you look at it today,
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  you clearly got up against the defense there in three and four
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  and and rode the fence all the way, you know, all four there.
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  And and that's strictly, you know, to protect our drivers as
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  well as our fans. So yeah, that was pretty
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  straightforward. I don't think Siebel knew that
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  Bubba was giving him the position.
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  So in his mind he's thinking he's still racing Bubba.
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  So he goes down in there and he backs it into the wall and and
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  he gets it. He rides the wall.
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  Because that you're desperate. You don't know.
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  I would have done. I would have done the same
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  thing. So was the primary focus in race
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  control just on the safety violation?
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  Were you looking at Bubba's, you know, slowing at that point or
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  the Chevy drivers, you know, sort of.
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  The question Jeff, no, if you look at the other situations
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  that were going on 23 and and then the the cars behind the 24
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  really no bearing at this time. We will look at those at a later
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  time. But when you really just dissect
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  exactly what happened, look at the situation with the 20
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  getting up against the fence and then, you know, riding the
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  fence, which is we clearly stated in our statement after
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  Ross did that, that that would not be, you know, accepted.
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  Dustin Long, NBC Sports Elton As you move to next week at Phoenix
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  to is there anything that you guys have to do in the next few
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  days to avoid a situation like tonight where there's a waiting
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  for results or waiting for a determination in the terms of,
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  you know, what a one and what what the couple of Chevy cars
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  did behind the 24 what the 23 may or may not have done
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  situation. So that there is no question
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  when things in Sunday night who the champion is.
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  Yeah, that's a great question. No different this week than any
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  other week. We'll, we'll have our, our
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  debriefings the first of the week.
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  We go over the things we did well, the things we didn't do so
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  well. And what are we going to do
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  going forward. And we'll, we'll dissect this
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  race, We'll look at it. We'll make sure our team is
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  ready to go when we get to Phoenix next week, as we did,
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  you know, after Homestead last week, coming into this weekend.
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  So we'll have those meetings, you know, starting tomorrow and
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  we'll be ready as a, as a sanction anybody to get out
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  there. But we have 4 very deserving
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  potential champions going out there racing for a championship.
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  Looking forward to getting out there.
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  As I said earlier, I think it's going to be, you know, a great
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  three days there with our trucks and Xfinity and couple on
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  Sunday, just the table set for one of the best championship
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  weekends that we've had in a long time.
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  Parkers, Foxworth have one procedural and then one actual
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  question. Joe Gibbs said that they
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  couldn't protest. Is that?
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  It's true race violation and and then race violations or not, you
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  know, protest them or it's not appealable, I should say.
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  And. No different than an
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  uncontrolled tire or too many men over the wall or anything
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  like that. And Christopher Belson, you
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  know, this was not on purpose. You didn't mean to ride the
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  wall, that, you know, that he hit the wall, but he didn't feel
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  like he made an unsafe move. So I'm curious, like, did you
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  feel like he did that on purpose to gain position?
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  Yeah, I'm not going to, I'm not going to speculate on what
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  Christopher did or said he what he meant to do.
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  That wouldn't be, you know, I'm not getting that wouldn't be
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  fair to try to make that type of, you know, decision based off
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  that. We, we looked at the data, we
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  looked at video and we've been very clear based off our
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  conversations with our industry, based off that move two years
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  ago that that would not be tolerated.
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  Are you guys going to be looking at anything additional about the
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  23 and then the Chevy cars at all or is that?
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  Yeah, that's Jordan. We'll look at everything.
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  You know, as I said earlier, we want to go back as we would have
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  done anyway. We'll get back.
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  We'll, we'll take all the data video, we'll look at, listen in
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  car audio and and look at video. We'll, we'll do all that as we
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  would any of it. And if something is deemed
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  inappropriate then a potential penalty then would be possible
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  like. As I said, we'll look at it.
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  And then second thing is, if you're just looking at the, the
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  Bubba or the, excuse me, the bell wall thing, it was nothing
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  else. It was 27 minutes, I think it
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  was. Is that a time frame?
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  That what what? Can you explain the time frame
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  and why it was so long there? We want to get it right first
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  and foremost and and we want to you know, this is not something
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  that happens every week. You know, we want to be
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  prepared. I thought, I thought our team in
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  the tower did exactly what they need to do.
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  As you know, we let's get this right and fortunately we don't
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  have it every week, but it is something that, you know, we'll
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  go back and figure out if we could have made that decision
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  faster for sure. I didn't know it took.
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  You could have told me it took 5 minutes or 55I, I don't know.
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  Mark LPON, Elton, What are the emotions that you're feeling?
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  Frustrated, kind of dismayed because we had a great race.
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  You know, you had a great story with Ryan, you know, passing
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  Chase at the end. And then here you guys are
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  having to make that kind of call to decide the 4th and final guy
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  in the championship for. Yeah, Mark, I think the the big
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  thing again is you look at the totality of the event, you look
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  from, excuse me, start to finish, there's a lot of
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  positives that they come out of today.
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  And again, Ryan defending champion and the drive that he
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  had and then the cars that he had to pass.
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  And you think about the the, the stress that that race team was
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  under like a lot of them. So I think there's this
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  tremendous amount of positive that comes out of this.
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  I would prefer not to be sitting here, although I think a lot of
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  you folks, but I would prefer to be, you know, out in the garage
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  right now. But this is part of it.
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  This is the role that is a sanction anybody that we have to
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  make sure that it's an equitable play and feel.
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  And just based off the, you know, the move that was made two
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  years ago, we just felt like this was the call that had to be
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  made and and we stand by that and feel like it was the right
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  call. So you said the focus was on
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  just looking at the wall ride. So if he doesn't do the wall
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  ride, regardless of whatever happened, he's he's in.
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  If he, if he makes the pass without hitting the wall and you
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  know, the Bubba stuff, the Chevy stuff aside, he would be in as
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  of now. Is that fair?
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  I think. There's the hypotheticals.
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  It is really difficult to I don't want to, you know, be
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  making statements of things that you know this and ants and butts
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  that. I don't want to do that.
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  Like I say, the main focus for us in the tower and when the
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  situation happened was focusing on the 20 car and let's figure
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  out, OK, where are we at there? Because it to me and our team
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  there was was focused more on that than the other stuff.
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  If the other stuff was there, don't get me wrong, but the 20
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  rows to the level that OK we got to, we got to figure this one
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  out pretty quick. Claire B Lane, for years, you
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  know, we've had teams say when they're not in the playoffs,
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  we're going to do our best to help our team mate.
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  And I'm sure that's what you guys will be talking about next
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  week. But where is there and is there
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  a clear line about teams helping teams and what they're allowed
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  to do in a playoff situation and what they're not allowed to do
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  to help each other on the same team?
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  Yeah, I think Claire, when you when you look at it again from a
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  30,000 foot view, you want our teams to show up, every one of
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  them to give, you know, the best effort they can to go out and
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  try to win the race. And when you get you get into
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  playoffs and then you have this 10 race stretch and then you
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  start eliminating drivers. You know, obviously rolls and
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  rolls are different. And then when you get here and
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  there's 8 drivers, we had two guys that were locked in, there
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  was six guys going for two spots.
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  So there's a lot going on. Again, I think our format is,
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  has delivered. It's, it's given this giving us
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  the excitement, giving our fans the excitement that we've that
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  we've asked for. And when you have that, you from
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  time to time, you're going to have situations like we had
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  today, because these guys are the best in the world and
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  they're going to give it everything they have and, and
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  the passion that they have to, to go out day in and day out
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  and, and try to win races and win championships.
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  So with that, you know, again, we'll go back and we'll download
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  with our team and see how we could have, you know, responded
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  quicker to get the answers that that you guys are looking for.