T
TonyB
Guest
NASCAR.com
ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- Felix Sabates, a minority owner of Jamie McMurray's team, walked out of the NASCAR hauler and flung a water bottle into a trash can.
Sabates and co-owner Chip Ganassi claimed that McMurray, and not Matt Kenseth, should have won Sunday's Subway 400 at North Carolina Speedway.
"Those two cars in front of us were a lap down," Sabates said of Kenseth and Kasey Kahne. "NASCAR told them to go around the pace car to get a lap back. They made mistake, but they're never going to admit they made a mistake. That's the way it goes."
Ganassi was more to the point.
"We got robbed in front of 100,000 people with their eyes wide open," Ganassi said before walking away.
Ganassi was probably wrong about the attendance, and NASCAR said he was wrong about getting robbed, too.
Here's what happened:
Kenseth and Kahne were running 1-2, just ahead of McMurray, when they headed to pit road for their final stops of the day on Lap 350. That also gave McMurray the lead.
As they were making their stops, Robby Gordon slid into Jeff Green and into the outside wall to bring out the caution. Under NASCAR's scoring system instituted late last year, the field is frozen at the time of the yellow.
"It was out determination with timing and scoring that the 17 and the 9 were still on the lead lap when the caution came out," NASCAR president Mike Helton said. "They were rolling, and we gave them what they lost when the pace car went by them."
Helton said the pace car, which was dispatched as soon as the yellow waved, and McMurray did indeed pass Kenseth and Kahne to put them a lap down, but since the field was already frozen, that didn't matter - and both drivers were allowed to take their rightful positions.
McMurray was in Turn 3 when the caution waved, and he was signaling to drivers behind him that he was about to pit.
NASCAR officials took several minutes to review tapes and scoring before deciding that Kenseth and Kahne should have been on the lead lap.
Replays showed Kenseth ran the stop sign at the end of pit road, but Helton said that didn't matter either.
"It could have, but that would've been irrelevant under the caution the way it unfolded," Helton said.
As it turned out, Kenseth and Kahne got back the top two spots when McMurray and the rest of the leaders pitted under caution.
None of the explanations suited Sabates.
"We won the race," Sabates said. "That's all. NASCAR has never changed the outcome of a race, ever. They're not going to change the outcome of this one. But they know we won it, and so did everybody else here."
Donnie Wingo, crew chief for McMurray, said it was unfair that Kenseth and Kahne got a lap back, no matter how they got it.
"I understand what they're saying about the field being froze, but the guy's still on pit road and gets a lap on the racetrack -- a lap's a lap," Wingo said. "At least they should have been at the tail end of the field there at restart."
But Helton said NASCAR determined that Kenseth and Kahne were simply completing normal stops and not trying to take advantage of the caution.
"We had officials down at that end of the track making the decision whether those cars were still in the middle of their pit stops or through with their pit stops by the time the leader got back around," Helton said. "Our call was they were progressing through their pit stop but on pit road.
"You don't want to entice people to out-guess a caution and make a pit stop - and benefit from making a pit stop. As it happens, the 17 and the 9 did, but it was just pure accident. It was just pure coincidence with all the other circumstances.
"There's a point where you make the call that he benefited staying in the pits, doing more work on the car while everybody else is still racing. That's not what happened in this case."
Helton said NASCAR showed Ganassi and Sabates "a lot of stuff" to defend the call, but Sabates contended he got "no explanation, no review."
"That's the way it goes sometimes," Sabates said. "Sometimes you win, sometimes you get the shaft and sometimes you get the elevator. We got the shaft this time."
At least that's his opinion. NASCAR's was clearly different.
ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- Felix Sabates, a minority owner of Jamie McMurray's team, walked out of the NASCAR hauler and flung a water bottle into a trash can.
Sabates and co-owner Chip Ganassi claimed that McMurray, and not Matt Kenseth, should have won Sunday's Subway 400 at North Carolina Speedway.
"Those two cars in front of us were a lap down," Sabates said of Kenseth and Kasey Kahne. "NASCAR told them to go around the pace car to get a lap back. They made mistake, but they're never going to admit they made a mistake. That's the way it goes."
Ganassi was more to the point.
"We got robbed in front of 100,000 people with their eyes wide open," Ganassi said before walking away.
Ganassi was probably wrong about the attendance, and NASCAR said he was wrong about getting robbed, too.
Here's what happened:
Kenseth and Kahne were running 1-2, just ahead of McMurray, when they headed to pit road for their final stops of the day on Lap 350. That also gave McMurray the lead.
As they were making their stops, Robby Gordon slid into Jeff Green and into the outside wall to bring out the caution. Under NASCAR's scoring system instituted late last year, the field is frozen at the time of the yellow.
"It was out determination with timing and scoring that the 17 and the 9 were still on the lead lap when the caution came out," NASCAR president Mike Helton said. "They were rolling, and we gave them what they lost when the pace car went by them."
Helton said the pace car, which was dispatched as soon as the yellow waved, and McMurray did indeed pass Kenseth and Kahne to put them a lap down, but since the field was already frozen, that didn't matter - and both drivers were allowed to take their rightful positions.
McMurray was in Turn 3 when the caution waved, and he was signaling to drivers behind him that he was about to pit.
NASCAR officials took several minutes to review tapes and scoring before deciding that Kenseth and Kahne should have been on the lead lap.
Replays showed Kenseth ran the stop sign at the end of pit road, but Helton said that didn't matter either.
"It could have, but that would've been irrelevant under the caution the way it unfolded," Helton said.
As it turned out, Kenseth and Kahne got back the top two spots when McMurray and the rest of the leaders pitted under caution.
None of the explanations suited Sabates.
"We won the race," Sabates said. "That's all. NASCAR has never changed the outcome of a race, ever. They're not going to change the outcome of this one. But they know we won it, and so did everybody else here."
Donnie Wingo, crew chief for McMurray, said it was unfair that Kenseth and Kahne got a lap back, no matter how they got it.
"I understand what they're saying about the field being froze, but the guy's still on pit road and gets a lap on the racetrack -- a lap's a lap," Wingo said. "At least they should have been at the tail end of the field there at restart."
But Helton said NASCAR determined that Kenseth and Kahne were simply completing normal stops and not trying to take advantage of the caution.
"We had officials down at that end of the track making the decision whether those cars were still in the middle of their pit stops or through with their pit stops by the time the leader got back around," Helton said. "Our call was they were progressing through their pit stop but on pit road.
"You don't want to entice people to out-guess a caution and make a pit stop - and benefit from making a pit stop. As it happens, the 17 and the 9 did, but it was just pure accident. It was just pure coincidence with all the other circumstances.
"There's a point where you make the call that he benefited staying in the pits, doing more work on the car while everybody else is still racing. That's not what happened in this case."
Helton said NASCAR showed Ganassi and Sabates "a lot of stuff" to defend the call, but Sabates contended he got "no explanation, no review."
"That's the way it goes sometimes," Sabates said. "Sometimes you win, sometimes you get the shaft and sometimes you get the elevator. We got the shaft this time."
At least that's his opinion. NASCAR's was clearly different.
Comes back to bite him on the butt and he whines!! Gotta love a guy like that!! 
