Kenseth, others weigh in on behavioral penalties – Nascar

RELATED: NASCAR specifies penalties for behavioral issues

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Matt Kenseth said he has seen NASCAR’s rule book updates, those referencing behavioral penalties and potential reactions from the sanctioning body that were announced Friday.

His take?

“Obviously, it would have been good to know that last season,” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said Saturday prior to final practice for Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Daytona International Speedway.

Kenseth, the 2003 Sprint Cup Series champion, was suspended for two races during last year’s Chase following an on-track incident involving himself and Team Penske driver Joey Logano at Martinsville Speedway. The contact effectively knocked Logano out of the championship hunt.

The incident came two weeks after Logano spun Kenseth at Kansas Speedway, a move that put the JGR driver’s title hopes in jeopardy.

NASCAR officials unveiled specific penalties concerning member conduct, both on and off the track, that ranged from possible warnings for heat-of-the-moment outbursts to hefty fines, points penalties and possible suspensions for intentionally crashing a fellow driver.

Jim Cassidy, NASCAR senior vice president of racing operations, said no specific on-track or off-track incident led to the changes.

Not surprisingly, the Kenseth/Logano incident did come up when drivers were asked about violations and reactions on Saturday.

“They have to be able to take action and everyone needs to be aware of what the repercussions could be of their actions,” Aric Almirola (Richard Petty Motorsports) said. “At least if it’s in black and white and you go do it, you know what’s coming. You’re not sitting like Matt Kenseth, wondering ‘Will they treat me like Jeff Gordon in Phoenix with Clint Bowyer (in 2012) or are they really fed up this time and they’re going to drop the hammer on me?’

“Nobody really knew. Everybody was kind of waiting to see what NASCAR was going to do after Martinsville. I think it was time for them to really draw out the guidelines and let us know that a) that’s not going to be tolerated and b) if we do something like that, here are the consequences.”

Brad Keselowski, Logano’s teammate at Team Penske, said he didn’t believe it was necessary for NASCAR to spell out the consequences for specific actions.

“But I’m not a lawyer or someone that would go through those processes that would need it spelled out to feel good about it,” the 2012 Sprint Cup champion said.

“It seems pretty simple to me, very common sense. Don’t (commit) a felony crime or do something dumb and keep your spot in the sport.”

The bigger concern, he said, was perception.

“And this is a concern for all of society — even though the law doesn’t state it this way we’ve turned into a guilty until proven innocent society and there’s a lot of concern about that,” he said.

While specific language detailing potential penalties concerning behavioral violations now exists in the rule book, officials will continue to treat all violations on a case-by-case basis.

It was the not knowing, driver Ryan Newman said, that often caused previous decisions to be called into question.

Having potential responses for violations in black and white “is not bad, but actually describing it and having some examples (is) probably a good thing for everybody,” the Richard Childress Racing driver said.

“If you just throw down a rule book and say ‘This is how we expect you to act,’ that’s not my mom and dad. That’s not how I think business should be run.”

As long as the distinctions are clear, team owner Richard Childress said, there shouldn’t be any issues.

“Which is a warning and which one will be the penalty?” he said. “To me, that’s what needs to be clear.”

“We’re all really competitive,” Almirola added. “Any time we feel like we get something taken away from us or we’re taken advantage of, most of our natural reaction is ‘I’m going to get that guy back.’ Right?

“But it’s a really corporate environment; I have great sponsors on my race car and on our race team. At the end of the day, I want to do a good job for them. Those guys pay the bills, they pay a lot of money and I want to be a good spokesman for those companies.

“That’s always in the back of my mind before I do something stupid.”