NASCAR Richmond 2013: NASCAR defends severity of penalties against Kenseth, JGR

It may seem callous, but NASCAR’s approach to enforcing its rule book is rather straightforward: Either a violation was committed or it wasn’t.

There is no gray, only black or white without any room for interpretation.

As NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton explained Friday at Richmond International Raceway, it’s NASCAR’s job to simply “regulate the rule book” without taking into account performance or intent.

“We’re not here to judge the performance on any of these,” Pemberton said. “We are strictly here to regulate the rule book and keep a level playing field for the garage area in which to work and make sure everybody gets a fair chance at competing.”

Officials are particularly vigilant about making sure teams don’t tamper with anything to do with engines, tires or fuel. And if an infraction involves one of those three areas, then the subsequent penalties will be especially harsh.

That was the mentality on Wednesday when NASCAR severely punished Joe Gibbs Racing for an engine rod that fell 2.7 grams below the minimum weight.

“It’s a part that didn’t meet spec,” Pemberton said. “It’s not a gray area. There are numbers in the books. If you look at numbers in the books and what’s going on in the garage area and across our national series, those numbers for a connecting rod have been in the book since around the time we went to a single-engine rule.”

So while stripping Matt Kenseth of 50 points, suspending crew chief Jason Ratcliff six races and fining him $200,000 in addition to various other sanctions may seem harsh, from NASCAR’s viewpoint it’s just business as usual.

Not everyone sees it that way though.

On Friday, defending series champion Brad Keselowski said that while he understands that NASCAR has to govern the sport, the heavy-handedness that it showed in dealing with JGR seems misplaced. Specifically, since the part in question didn’t increase the performance level on Kenseth’s car and also because the team didn’t assemble or install the engine.

NASCAR, however, can’t penalize Toyota or other third-party suppliers. Instead, its only course of action is to hold the teams which have the illegal parts and pieces on their cars accountable.

“As it relates to a car owner being suspended, when you look at engine penalties they’re severe for a reason,” Pemberton said. “We don’t take lightly somebody being out of bounds when it comes to an engine or an engine situation. That’s why the penalties sit where they do.”

Whether teams like it or not, there is no subjectivity in the way NASCAR enforces its rules. There are no emotions or feelings clouding its judgment, just a clear view of what’s legal and illegal.

“I don’t want to be so cold about it, but that’s just the way it is,” Pemberton said. “That’s why you have these parameters put into play. They know ahead of time where they’re supposed to be.”