NASCAR will decide this week whether or not to take action against Danica Patrick for getting out of her car and gesturing toward Kasey Kahne after he wrecked her during Sunday’s Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway.
That’s the word from NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer Steve O’Donnell, who appeared Monday morning on Sirius/XM NASCAR Radio to discuss the Kahne-Patrick incident.
Asked if Patrick’s post-incident action would be looked at, O’Donnell affirmed NASCAR will take a look at it.
“That’s one of the things we will be reviewing, is what happened there,” said O’Donnell during his Sirius/XM NASCAR Radio segment. “And that’s part of having all the video tape, that we want to take some time … there’s a lot going on during a race. Coming back from the West Coast, we’ve got to take the time to evaluate all that.
“We do have a rule in place and want to make sure that, what were the circumstances around that?” O’Donnell said. “… We’ve got to make sure, first and foremost, rules are in place to keep the drivers safe. And we want to just review everything that took place there and see if there’s anything we need to react to this week.”
Section 10.4.2.1 of the NASCAR Rulebook states, in part, “At no time should a driver or crew member(s) approach any portion of the racing surface or apron. At no time should a driver or crew member(s) approach another moving vehicle.”
Kahne was called into the NASCAR hauler after the race, which O’Donnell said was routine.
“Where there’s an incident that potentially was avoidable, we’re going to bring folks in,” said O’Donnell. “And 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 … getting his viewpoint of the accident, what happens. It was a good discussion. We’ll certainly follow up with both of them and make sure everything’s OK heading into Martinsville.”
For his part, Kahne took responsibility for the incident.
