Matt Kenseth’s victory bid undone by penalty, team miscommunication

Matt Kenseth was out front, seemingly in control of Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Then, a penalty and subsequent team miscommunication derailed his bid to win the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500.

The unraveling begin as Kenseth, who led 47 of the first 115 circuits, pitted on Lap 116 and the No. 20 team’s gasman refueled the car while placing a tool on the deck lid. Because NASCAR prohibits gasmen from performing any other action while in the act of refueling, Kenseth incurred a pass-thru penalty.

Jason Radcliff, Kenseth’s crew chief, immediately disputed the call arguing the practice of a gasman setting a tool on the deck lid was something the No. 20 team did regularly without penalty. But as Radcliff argued for a reversal, no one notified Kenseth of the infraction and he continued racing.

NASCAR did not change its initial ruling, and because Kenseth did not serve the initial penalty within three laps he was penalized another. Meaning, he lost two laps to the field and any chance of winning essentially evaporated. He finished 19th.

The sequence of events prompted an exasperated Kenseth to radio Ratcliff and spotter Curtis Markham, in his first race working with Kenseth, and question why he was not informed of the initial punishment.

“I get the black flag, how the hell am I supposed to know? I don’t really watch the flagman,” Kenseth said. ”... I had no idea we were being black flagged. I didn’t know we had any kind of problem. Nobody told me.

“We screwed the race away here unless we get everything to fall in our lap.”

Kenseth and Ratcliff continued the conversation later during the first caution period on Lap 210. Ratcliff, Kenseth’s crew chief since 2013, explained NASCAR’s justification for the penalty, though Kenseth was more concerned with the lack of communication afterward.

“I understand. From my seat, that part is irrelevant,” Kenseth said. “I just need to know that we’re being black flagged from you or Curtis. Somebody needs to communicate that to me so I can watch it, and I didn’t put us in a spot.”

Kenseth then instructed Markham of how to respond should a similar situation arise. Markham is filling in for Kenseth’s regular spotter Chris Osborne, who was seriously injured in a traffic crash Dec. 17.

“Curtis, if we ever get in that spot again and you see them black flag me and you hear them in the scanner saying to black flag the 20, post the 20, you’ve gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta tell me,” Kenseth said. “You’ve got to tell me even if they’re arguing it, so we can start talking about it and make sure we get there before we get penalized.”

After Markham explained he was awaiting a final ruling before offering any further instructions, Kenseth continued.

“You’ve just got to be like, ‘Hey Matt, just so you know we’ve got a pit road penalty, we’re still arguing it, don’t pit yet but we’re getting a black flag and I want to you watch the black flag,’” Kenseth said. “... I got to have the information. I can’t help you without any.”