O’Donnell: NASCAR reviewing Kahne, Patrick incident at Auto Club – Nascar

Though Kahne was apologetic in his radio communications and post-race comments, NASCAR mandated that Kahne and crew chief Keith Rodden visit the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series hauler for a post-race consultation. Monday, O’Donnell said the reason for the summons was to head off any escalating tensions between the two drivers, alluding to last year’s blow-up with Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano and the desire to prevent a repeat.
 
“I think what we learned really from last year is where there’s an incident, we look at something that could’ve potentially been avoidable, we’re going to bring folks in,” O’Donnell told SiriusXM. “There was obviously some emotion after the incident and some displeasure from Danica, so we wanted to bring in Kasey and find out what his perspective was. …
 
“From our perspective, it was just getting his viewpoint of the accident, what happened. It was a good discussion. We’ll certainly follow up with both of them to make sure everything’s OK heading into Martinsville, but just part of the weekly dialogue we want to have with the competitors and an incident where we want to raise a few questions and make sure we’re on the same page with the competitors.”
 
O’Donnell also said NASCAR officials would review Patrick’s actions after she emerged from her crumpled Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 Chevrolet. After exiting the heap, Patrick diverted from her path to the ambulance and walked toward the racing surface to make a gesture of exasperation toward Kahne’s passing car.
 
In the on-track incident procedure section (10.4.2.1) of the 2016 NASCAR Rule Book, drivers are instructed to proceed to the ambulance or safety vehicle “as directed by safety personnel or a NASCAR Official.” The section also states that “At no time should a driver or crew member(s) approach any portion of the racing surface or apron” or another moving vehicle.
 
“That’s one of the things we will be reviewing is what happened there, and that’s part of having all the videotape that we want to take some time,” O’Donnell said. “The race, as you guys know, there’s a lot going on during a race and coming back from the West Coast, we’ve got to take the time to evaluate all that.”
 
The Kahne-Patrick conflict wasn’t the only altercation that will be under review. Joey Logano’s tight battle with Martin Truex Jr. at the race’s three-quarter pole yielded a brush with the wall for Truex while Logano pressed on for a top-five finish.
 
Logano and Truex had a pointed but civil conversation on pit road after the race, but Cole Pearn, Truex’s crew chief with the Furniture Row Racing No. 78 team, blasted Logano with a scathing personal insult on Twitter in the aftermath. While O’Donnell applauded the spirit that drivers and crew typically share on social media, he said there were limits in terms of decency.
 
“We certainly want to be liberal in terms of allowing drivers, competitors to express their opinion, but there is absolutely a line,” O’Donnell said. “We’ve got that set out in our behavioral guidelines. I saw that as well and it’s another one we’re going to have to take a look at. There was an apology sent, which I thought was necessary, and that is an area that everyone in the garage knows there’s a line you can’t cross.
 
“Each and every week, we look at that but for the most part, we want to be as liberal as possible because we like the emotion, first of all we like the interaction with race fans, which is mostly positive. I think our drivers and industry do a tremendous job on social media, but everything has to be reviewed and that’s part of what we have to do as a sport.”
 
O’Donnell said there was plenty to review on the NASCAR XFINITY Series side as well, most of it the result of a wild final lap to Saturday’s 300-miler. With Kyle Busch poised to pounce on his fourth consecutive XFINITY win, his No. 18 ride frayed a tire and dropped debris on the track. He kept chugging at reduced pace toward the finish, but no caution flag emerged. Instead of freezing the field and potentially handing him the victory, Busch was eventually passed by race winner Austin Dillon within sight of the checkered flag.
 
O’Donnell defended the decision to keep the race under green-flag conditions, saying, “we’ve discussed this a number of times on the show what our goal is with any race is, if we can finish under green, we’re going to make every effort to do that and if we have to react in terms of a driver needing some immediate safety attention or equipment dispatched, we’ll also not hesitate to throw the caution.”
 
The final-lap scramble also prompted the hypothetical question of whether Busch would be given the victory if his car’s trouble was the reason for a yellow flag.
 
“Great question and it would depend on the reason for the caution,” O’Donnell said. “In this case, if it was for debris on the race track and Kyle was able to maintain pace and was leading at the time, yeah he would be declared the race winner. Where he wouldn’t is if he was the cause of the caution in terms of his vehicle and we’ve got to cause it, but if it’s for debris on the track, which is a tough call to make and maintain pace, he would’ve been declared the winner.”
 
Busch finished second, then hastily left the track without comment to the media, but not before issuing a sarcastic blast toward NASCAR officiating over his team radio. O’Donnell said this, too, would be evaluated.

RELATED: NASCAR to review Busch’s comments | Hear what he said post-race
 
“First, I’ll say I applaud Kyle’s passion because at the end of the day, the guy wants to win and he’s not happy when he doesn’t, so you always want to see that,” O’Donnell said. “Little disappointed, sure, in terms of the post-race comments and certainly the media obligations. Yeah, we’ll review everything. That’s part of what we have to do. We’ll look at video of any incident, audio and certainly post-race. We’ll do that as we get back from the West Coast and meet this week and see what — if anything — we’ve got to do.”
 
On a more positive note, O’Donnell said the passionate moments and compelling racing — helped in part by NASCAR’s reduced-downforce rules package for 2016 and the track’s well-work surface — have helped make Auto Club a destination race on the Sprint Cup schedule. The event also provided a successful capper to the three-race West Coast Swing as the series heads into a race idle weekend for the Easter holiday.
 
“We used to look going into some intermediate tracks, even California, you look at a couple years ago heading into Auto Club Speedway the Monday prior and there wouldn’t be anticipation. And I think that storyline has really changed,” O’Donnell said. “People look forward to going to that race. With that is higher expectations, but that’s OK. I think coming out of the race, you’re seeing emotion like you only saw coming out of really a short track and that’s the ultimate goal is to produce more moments during a race, have the passion, you’re seeing all with the build-up all the way to the Chase.
 
“Every race matters, every moment matters, so a lot of passion from the drivers and certainly a lot of momentum as we head into Martinsville and the off week this weekend.”

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