Martin Truex Jr. upset with NASCAR over controversial penalty at Kentucky

On an evening where a hard tire compound and a reconfigured track combined to make passing arduous, Martin Truex Jr. put on a clinic weaving through traffic Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway.

Truex charged from 22nd to third over a 57-lap stint, his run up the leaderboard only halted when he had to pit for fuel with 10 laps remaining. It was unlike anything else that transpired in the Quaker State 400. Drivers struggled with a tire that showed little wear and a track that -- because of a recent repave -- was essentially one-groove, with anyone who ventured off the bottom lane encountering trouble.

But despite clearly having the fastest car, Truex did not win his second race of 2016. Instead, he finished 10th, his victory bid coming undone due to the late stop for fuel and a controversial penalty necessitating the spirited effort that saw him gain 19 positions with passes no one else could complete.

“It’s all you do in instances like that is keep your head down and dig,” Truex said. “We went all the way to third place from the back. That was cool. All in all we still finished 10th. It’s just one of those deals.”

The penalty was an obvious sore spot for Truex post-race, one he thought was grossly unwarranted and took away a potential victory.

NASCAR sanctioned Truex for passing leader Kevin Harvick on the left as the two made pit stops under caution on Lap 196 of 267. As Harvick led the field down pit road, second-place Truex crossed the first timing line and accelerated to speed into his pit stall. This is a common tactic, as NASCAR determines pit road speed by time over distance, and because Truex would make a complete stop in his stall, he therefore couldn’t exceed the 45 mph pit road speed.

“I’m not sure why we got penalized,” Truex said. “It’s a timing line thing, everybody does it. You get your line and you gas it up to your pit, it’s what I did. I don’t know. I guess it wasn’t my night on that deal. It’s frustrating, we had the car to beat and I felt like if we didn’t get (Harvick) on the pit stop, we weren’t going to be able to pass him. It was so hard to pass.

“We came out with the lead and they took it away from us. It’s just the way it goes I guess.”

Crew chief Cole Pearn protested the call, meeting with officials for 40 minutes when the race concluded. Even then, Pearn still didn’t understand why Truex was penalized.

“It’s not a rule,” Pearn told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “(NASCAR) says it’s in the driver’s meeting video every week, which it’s not. It’s not in the rulebook. It happens every week on pit road, so I don’t know. ... It’s completely legal and goes on every week.”

NASCAR vice president of competition Scott Miller disagreed with Pearn’s assertion, saying the infraction was blatant.

“You can’t pass on pit road,” Miller said. “If you do pass on pit road, it specifically says it has to be to the right when somebody is peeling off into their box.”

If there was any solace to be had on a night when victory slipped away, it’s that Truex once again found himself in contention on a mile-and-a-half track. He previously led the most laps at Texas, Kansas and Charlotte, and was out front for 45 laps on Saturday.

That intermediate track prowess bodes well for Truex’s championship aspirations, with half of the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff venues 1.5 miles in length.

“It was fun,” Truex said. “We had a fast race car again. I think that’s five mile-and-a-half race tracks now where we’ve pretty much dominated, and we’ve only won one of them (Charlotte).

“So, we’ve got to clean that up. We’ve got to execute better, but all in all, it was a good night.”