Kasey Kahne pit road incident

I think most who were around when Nascar penalized Earnhardt erroneously for missing a lug nut at Rockingham, remember the case. In the immediate aftermath Nascar made an extraordinary effort to correct their mistake. They basically disrupted the race to reset the race back to prior conditions before the bad call.

Some will say only Dale could have got such a concession. But I think it was the way the Childress team responded. When Dale came into to serve his penalty the official saw the lug that was indeed on, and immediately knew it was a blown or bad call.

But the team also simultaneously snapped a Polaroid photo, and immediately had some rub it in your face material. There also was enough rub it in your face evidence to exonerate Kahne last night, and I think Hendrick has enough credibility to be heard.

But Kahne was already having a forgettable race. You pick your battles wisely. Maybe Hendrick knew it was already a lost cause or that he had three better cars running near the front, and that was the wisest or better focal point.

The last part is pure speculation, but that is what I positively think could have perhaps, maybe, kind of, sorta have been of the biggest factor.
 
He got penalized because he slowed down to enter the pits, and then sped up while on pit road and continued with his pit stop. This is obviously different from drivers scrambling down pit road to avoid a big crash, but I still don't think he should have been penalized.
 
You open up that can of worms, and it would get stupid quick. How about when somebody locks up, and you could scream by him "because you were avoiding an accident." Poop storm. If this were about Kyle Busch there wouldn't be a thread. Poor Kasey.
 
Revman said:
You open up that can of worms, and it would get stupid quick. How about when somebody locks up, and you could scream by him "because you were avoiding an accident." Poop storm. If this were about Kyle Busch there wouldn't be a thread. Poor Kasey.
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I see what your saying, but that car was catching up to him backwards...
 
DUN24 said:
I see what your saying, but that car was catching up to him backwards...
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Honestly, I am in favor of NASCAR making the call dependent upon the situation. Yeah, judgment calls. Kind of like the ways laws are created, interpreted, and enforced in this great land of ours.
 
A car comes screaming into the pits off the track at 180 mph to avoid a crash is ok but a car accelerating to maybe 70 mph to avoid an accident on pit road - where NASCAR failed to completely dry the track - is punishable? If a driver knows where the scoring lines are on pit road he can accelerate much faster than pit road speed limit at certain points without getting caught, and NASCAR knows this but doesn't call it. Give me a ****** break. This call was just to even out their horrendous bump pushing call in the NW race.

If it were Dale Jr they would have let it pass.
 
Revman said:
You open up that can of worms, and it would get stupid quick. How about when somebody locks up, and you could scream by him "because you were avoiding an accident." Poop storm. If this were about Kyle Busch there wouldn't be a thread. Poor Kasey.
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Thank you Revman . Trying to equate speeding on pit road during pit stops ( with all of the crews out there and with a speed limit in place ); and a driver being forced down pit road during a pileup on track , are miles apart . Nascar had to react or they would be in an argument on every pit road speeding call .The 'trying to avoid an accident' card would be used every time. Sorry , but good call.
 
I think nascar would rather see drivers make the safe move and slow down. Hitting the gas at high speed on pit road carries a load of risks for crews.
 
ChexOrWrex said:
A car comes screaming into the pits off the track at 180 mph to avoid a crash is ok but a car accelerating to maybe 70 mph to avoid an accident on pit road - where NASCAR failed to completely dry the track - is punishable? If a driver knows where the scoring lines are on pit road he can accelerate much faster than pit road speed limit at certain points without getting caught, and NASCAR knows this but doesn't call it. Give me a ******* break. This call was just to even out their horrendous bump pushing call in the NW race.

If it were Dale Jr they would have let it pass.
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That NW pushing call was to send a message to Kyle without penalizing him. I appreciated it. :nyanya:
 
So all that being said, from now on when there is an accident near pit road we can expect people to slam on their breaks and cause a bigger pile up...got it:\
 
Matt Kenseth is still a bigger threat on pit road than Kasey Khane
 
I would have liked to see Kahne get a break on that one, he did the smart thing in speeding up to get out of the way. If it was Jr. would NASCAR have penalized him? I think not.
 
FenderBumper said:
I think nascar would rather see drivers make the safe move and slow down. Hitting the gas at high speed on pit road carries a load of risks for crews.
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Watch the video, if he had slowed down he would have been hit. Sorry but there is no rationalizing this, Nasar blew this call in a big way and could have huge ramifications in the future, dumb, dumb call. Also then why is it ok to come barrelling down pit road at speed to avoid a wreck on the track?
 
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Dwayne said:
Watch the video, if he had slowed down he would have been hit. Sorry but there is no rationalizing this, Nasar blew this call in a big way and could have huge ramifications in the future, dumb, dumb call.
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Nascar made the call, Lets see next time someone avoids an accident
 
Bucky Badger said:
There is nothing to change. Just so the forum has this straight,

If there is a big accident at pit road and people have to come down pit road to dodge it and can't get to the speed limit, you think they should be penalized?
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Big accident? LOL He sped up so he wouldn't get hit.. yeah... but he should have slowed more before the next line... his fault. He's got the tach in there with the big red flashing lights... too bad so sad.
 
If they took a bit more time to decide about a penalty it might work out a little better, its a long race. Take a few minutes to review a situation and THEN make the call. No need to be in such a big hurry. F-1 takes several minutes or more to decide on a call
 
Dwayne said:
Watch the video, if he had slowed down he would have been hit. Sorry but there is no rationalizing this, Nasar blew this call in a big way and could have huge ramifications in the future, dumb, dumb call. Also then why is it ok to come barrelling down pit road at speed to avoid a wreck on the track?
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Because you don't pit. You drive thru. If the yellow comes out, you get your spot back. It's a tough situation for Kasey, but he decided to hit the gas and speed on pit road to avoid another car. If nascar made an exception, that choice can be justified on pit road 20 times during ANY race. "I sped to avoid the 23 coming out of his box" "I sped to avoid the 44 coming in". Parsing a safety rule is never a good idea. Sucks for Kasey, but that's racing.
 
FenderBumper said:
Pit road is too dangerous already. What if a driver with less talent or experience tries that move and messes up? He could turn pit road into a very ugly bowling alley.
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But if KK had maintained speed he most likely gets collected. Then you have two cars spinning with the potential to hit the pit wall, which is a huge risk.

I just think Nascar needs to use discretion. KK made a smart move, I dont think he should have been punished for being heads up.
 
Greg said:
But if KK had maintained speed he most likely gets collected. Then you have two cars spinning with the potential to hit the pit wall, which is a huge risk.

I just think Nascar needs to use discretion. KK made a smart move, I dont think he should have been punished for being heads up.
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Perhaps if he had hit the brakes and given some of the time back he could have gotten away with it. Kasey clearly made the right move, but I don't think nascar wants drivers arguing about why they sped on pit road.

Tough call, but it happens all the time.
 
FenderBumper said:
Because you don't pit. You drive thru. If the yellow comes out, you get your spot back. It's a tough situation for Kasey, but he decided to hit the gas and speed on pit road to avoid another car. If nascar made an exception, that choice can be justified on pit road 20 times during ANY race. "I sped to avoid the 23 coming out of his box" "I sped to avoid the 44 coming in". Parsing a safety rule is never a good idea. Sucks for Kasey, but that's racing.
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That's different these cars are not spinning out off control. When you're driving and you see a car spinning out of control coming down on you, you get out of the way anyway you can safely do so, the only way here was to burb the throttle and speed up a bit. Sorry but no comparison here.
 
Kyle18fan said:
If they took a bit more time to decide about a penalty it might work out a little better, its a long race. Take a few minutes to review a situation and THEN make the call. No need to be in such a big hurry. F-1 takes several minutes or more to decide on a call
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That would help ALOT. F1 still blows calls though.. So might NASCAR. It could do nothing but make it easier I think.
 
Dwayne said:
That's different these cars are not spinning out off control. When you're driving and you see a car spinning out of control coming down on you, you get out of the way anyway you can safely do so, the only way here was to burb the throttle and speed up a bit. Sorry but no comparison here.
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Sorry, that wasn't the only way.

1) He has a steering wheel.
2) brake after speeding and give the time back.
3) Continue thru pit road.

Again, parsing safety rules isn't a good idea.
 
FenderBumper said:
Sorry, that wasn't the only way.

1) He has a steering wheel.
2) brake after speeding and give the time back.
3) Continue thru pit road.

Again, parsing safety rules isn't a good idea.
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I think he did slow down immediatly after clearing the 7, but you do bring up an interesting point, had he gone through pit lane with out pitting would have have been penalized, I doubt it. Is there a rule about using pit road to avoid an accident? Lets say you have the first pit stall you come down pit road at speed to avoid a wreck, slow down to pit speed half way down pit road, procede at pit speed and pull into your pit. Penalty?
 
Dwayne said:
I think he did slow down immediatly after clearing the 7, but you do bring up an interesting point, had he gone through pit lane with out pitting would have have been penalized, I doubt it. Is there a rule about using pit road to avoid an accident? Lets say you have the first pit stall you come down pit road at speed to avoid a wreck, slow down to pit speed half way down pit road, procede at pit speed and pull into your pit. Penalty?
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Nope. They give you your spot back based on timing loops when the yellow came out. You won't get back the position you were in when you left the track, but he would have been in decent shape had he made the right decision. nascar allows cars to exceed pit road speed to avoid an accident as long as they slow down close to PR speed and don't pit.
 
Aside from Khane's call, how about the fact that NASCAR threw the yellow flag on the final lap as soon as one car got a little out of shape. Now go back to Daytona 500 2007.

If Jr was ahead of Kevin Harvick he'd have 3 500 trophies.
 
I heard the official that made the call just happened to be the old guy Kahne punched in the gut several years ago for making him show his credentials at
ChexOrWrex said:
Aside from Khane's call, how about the fact that NASCAR threw the yellow flag on the final lap as soon as one car got a little out of shape. Now go back to Daytona 500 2007.

If Jr was ahead of Kevin Harvick he'd have 3 500 trophies.
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imo nascar should have thrown a caution in 07, and did the right thing throwing it on the last lap this time.
 
It's fine to black flag him. There should be someone who just looks at the track through the eyes of the rule book and spots every infraction. However, they should have rescinded the black flag after reviewing the situation. It's how it has always been.
 
Yogisd1 said:
It has always been accepted that if avoiding an accident the pit lane speed was not enforced. What is different here is, that in order to avoid the accident, Kahne's only choice was to speed up. Usually when avoiding accidents cars are slowing down when they break the pit speed rule. This time a car had to speed up to avoid an accident and they had never seen that before. I think where the official was standing he couldn't see the car Kahne is trying to avoid until it crosses pit lane. All he sees is a car sliding harmlessly behind Kahne, and Kahne not attempting to slow down entering pit road so he calls a penalty. I'll bet he didn't know Kahne was avoiding an accident. If he did know this, then the official should be relieved of his duty. Whether it is in the rulebook or not this has always been the exception to the rule. So if Nascar, knowing the situation and still enforced this penality, they made a huge mistake.
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this. The rule has always been that a car could speed down pit road to avoid an accident, BUT said car is required to slow to pit lane speed and may not approach the pit box before leaving pit road.
 
Said cars are usually not coming in to make a pit stop, this one was. You can see the big flame from the exhaust that he tried to slow down after clearing the other car.
 
3wideinturn1 said:
I would have liked to see Kahne get a break on that one, he did the smart thing in speeding up to get out of the way. If it was Jr. would NASCAR have penalized him? I think not.
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If it were Matt Kenseth would they have penalized him? I think not!
 
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