CONCORD, N.C. — Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. all got the raw end of the deal when they got together with other drivers during the Sprint Cup Series race Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
But it wasn’t necessarily the first hit that made them the most angry. It was the ones after the initial damage that had them shaking their heads following the Bank of America 500.
Busch and Earnhardt were angry at NASCAR for what they felt was a lousy job cleaning up the track in the top of the groove between Turns 1 and 2 from a Justin Allgaier oil spill on lap 182.
Both drivers hit the wall as they tried to put themselves in position to finish on the lead lap. Earnhardt, one lap down, ended up in the wall shortly before lap 200 and wound up four laps down in 28th. Busch hit it about 15 laps later, finishing one lap down in 20th.
“You can’t pass anybody — it’s a single-lane race track and then [a driver] put oil on the top lane [where we] to try to make anything happen and then you put yourself in the fence — so thanks to NASCAR for cleaning that up,” Busch said sarcastically.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series director Richard Buck said NASCAR had cleanup workers actually walk the areas where drivers complained about oil, and they felt no oil, just the kitty litter-type absorbent.
Earnhardt said NASCAR might have missed the oil because of shadows on the track, but Buck said workers and the pace-car driver did not feel any oil.
“I’ve raced this [stuff] for 20 years,” Earnhardt said. “I know what oil and [the absorbent] Speedi Dri is. We hit fluid, flew into the freaking wall hard. That’s not Speedi Dri. There was oil up there. … I hit the f—ing wall.
“I know I hit oil. I hit it. I promise. I’ll argue with them all day long because I know I’m right.”
Busch is 10th in the standings — 10 points out of eighth with two races left in the Contender Round. Earnhardt is 11th, 19 points out of eighth as they will have to either win one of the final two races or earn a position based on points when the field gets cut from 12 to eight.
Busch’s day started to go sour on lap 195, when Kyle Larson changed his mind on whether to pit under caution and came across Busch’s nose at the entrance to pit road.
“Right when I turned right [to not pit], they were yelling me to pit,” Larson said. “I turned left as hard as I could because I was already close to the commitment cone, and I just turned into his right front. I just feel awful for those guys. I hope I’m not the reason they miss the next round.”
Earnhardt’s original issue came after contact with Carl Edwards, who felt like he couldn’t yield a position even though they were just 75 laps into a 334-lap race. Earnhardt said he didn’t know if he cut off Edwards or not.
“I felt like he blocked me real hard the first time, and so the second time I got up there when he came down, I just held my ground and we got together,” Edwards said.
Kenseth’s issue was more with himself. Kenseth, who had started on the pole and led 72 laps, overshot his pit on lap 169 and lost several spots. A few laps after the restart, he and Ryan Newman had contact where Kenseth thought he had left Newman enough room but obviously knew he had in some ways put himself in that position.
Repairs provided only temporary fixes, and he hit the wall a couple more times to bring his day to a premature end with 94 laps remaining. He finished 42nd and sits 32 points out of the current cutoff for the next round.
“If this is the best I can do, it’s amazing I have a job,” Kenseth said.