NASCAR results at Talladega: How did officials sort out finishing order?

After Sunday’s NASCAR race at Talladega (results), team owner Roger Penske and Paul Wolfe questioned the finishing position of Brad Keselowski’s No. 2 Dodge, which was fourth in the running order when caution froze the field after the last-lap wreck.

NASCAR rules, however, stipulate that a car will be scored where it blends back into line, even in the case of a wreck on the final lap.

“When it comes down to the end of the race, you freeze the field,” said NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton. “You have that time, but we score it by all means. We have a lot of video, a lot of replay and things like that. It’s about maintaining reasonable pace and other things. It took almost an hour to get our top 15 or so, and that’s how we do things.”

Pemberton said the Penske camp was satisfied with the explanation after viewing video of the final lap.

“Once they saw the video, they were good with it,” Pemberton said. “If you froze the field, there was a car on its roof that would have been ahead of other cars, too, and that wasn’t the case. As we walk through these things, everybody appreciates the effort that we took.

“Once we show them the evidence and where cars merge in, everybody understands. There’s always a discrepancy or an argument over one spot here or there, but once you talk through things, everybody understands.”

Penske Racing president Tim Cindric affirmed Pemberton’s statement on his Twitter account. “NASCAR ruled @keselowski didn’t maintain speed,” Cindric wrote. “After watching the replay, probably fair.”