{"id":10093,"date":"2022-03-24T15:44:48","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T19:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=10093"},"modified":"2022-07-22T12:08:30","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T16:08:30","slug":"news-analysis-brad-keselowski-penalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2022\/03\/24\/news-analysis-brad-keselowski-penalty\/","title":{"rendered":"News analysis: Brad Keselowski penalty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>None of you asked for it, but hop aboard as I break down the massive penalty handed to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2022\/02\/20\/daytona-500-eludes-brad-keselowski\/\" target=\"_self\"><strong>Brad Keselowski<\/strong><\/a>&#8216;s team.<\/p>\n<h2>News analysis: Brad Keselowski penalty<\/h2>\n<h3>The news<\/h3>\n<p>NASCAR levied an L2-level penalty on Keselowski&#8217;s No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford, Thursday, for violations of Sections 14.1 and 14.5 in the NASCAR Rule Book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nascar.com\/news-media\/2022\/03\/24\/rfk-racing-no-6-team-penalized-100-points-fined-100000\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">which covers the modification of a single source supplied part<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>NASCAR didn&#8217;t disclose what specific part violated the rules, but FOX Sports&#8217; NASCAR writer, Bob Pockrass tweeted the following.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">From people I have talked to, the issue on the Brad Keselowski car had to do with the body at the rear of the car. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Z3M8enVSIW\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/Z3M8enVSIW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bobpockrass\/status\/1507010893690724371?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 24, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>As a result, NASCAR docked Keselowski both 100 driver and owners points, as well as 10 playoff points. It also fined crew chief Matt McCall $100,000 and suspended him for the next four points races.<\/p>\n<p><em>EDITOR&#8217;S NOTE: This article has been updated to include RFK Racing&#8217;s announcement.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>RFK had three business days (until Monday) to decide whether to appeal or accept the penalty. It announced Friday that it would appeal the decision.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">RFK Racing Statement: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JHkoLsw4jQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/JHkoLsw4jQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; RFK Racing (@RFKracing) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RFKracing\/status\/1507439704450469895?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 25, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Pockrass tweeted that McCall will sit out this week, and that RFK won&#8217;t seek a deferment of his suspension.<\/p>\n<h2>News analysis: Brad Keselowski penalty<\/h2>\n<h3>The significance<\/h3>\n<p>On a scale of 1-10, this is an 11.<\/p>\n<p>First, this drops Keselowski from 16th in points to 35th. Compounding that, he&#8217;s in a 10-playoff point deficit.<\/p>\n<p>Now it&#8217;s early enough in the season where the hole isn&#8217;t too deep to escape, as that&#8217;s just a two-race deficit, but the performance isn&#8217;t there.<\/p>\n<p>Since his strong run at Daytona, he&#8217;s hovered around the mid-20s.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"274\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10094\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-24-at-3.07.29-PM.png\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-24-at-3.07.29-PM.png 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-24-at-3.07.29-PM-300x80.png 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-24-at-3.07.29-PM-768x206.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Look, Keselowski is an elite driver who&#8217;s bound for the NASCAR Hall of Fame, but this isn&#8217;t the Roush organization of the 2000s that once put all five of its drivers into the playoffs. This is the Roush that&#8217;s won just two races since 2015.<\/p>\n<p>So what started as a borderline Herculean task turned into a greater one.<\/p>\n<p>Realistically, his easiest path to the playoffs is to win at Talladega Superspeedway and Daytona International Speedway. As he&#8217;s the active wins leader in restrictor plate races (with seven).<\/p>\n<p>I left out Atlanta Motor Speedway, because he didn&#8217;t lead a single lap and ran only 53.5% of the race inside the top-15.<\/p>\n<p>With all things considered, there&#8217;s not another track where I&#8217;d have confidence in him making up this deficit, because of the RFK factor.<\/p>\n<h2>News analysis: Brad Keselowski penalty<\/h2>\n<h3>Unanswered questions<\/h3>\n<p>Two questions remain unanswered.<\/p>\n<p>First, what was RFK Racing thinking?!<\/p>\n<p>They evaded the ire of NASCAR back in Daytona with the wheel nonsense. So why would they tempt fate, again, by doing THIS just a few weeks later?! Did they not think NASCAR might watch them more closely, after Daytona?<\/p>\n<p>Now they&#8217;ve put Keselowski in a hole that even an elite NASCAR wheelman like him might not escape.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of NASCAR, why was this not caught in pre-race inspection, when the league sent Keselowski&#8217;s car to the back? If it was, why was the No. 6 car allowed to race, Sunday, in Atlanta?<\/p>\n<p>Do the heads in Daytona expect me to buy that the No. 6 car was illegal enough to warrant this penalty, four days after the race, but legal enough to race on Sunday?<\/p>\n<p>Sorry, NASCAR, but if the car was illegal all this time, then you shouldn&#8217;t have let Keselowski&#8217;s car start the race.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s all for now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TOP IMAGE: Mike Ehrmann\/Getty Images<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>None of you asked for it, but hop aboard as I break down the massive penalty handed to\u00a0Brad Keselowski&#8216;s team. News analysis: Brad Keselowski penalty The news NASCAR levied an L2-level penalty on Keselowski&#8217;s No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford, Thursday, for violations of Sections 14.1 and 14.5 in the NASCAR Rule Book, which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3353,"featured_media":9934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,1664,3],"tags":[513,160,1409,14,1550,371,1526,1608,1607],"class_list":["post-10093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-nascar","category-nascar-cup-series","category-news","tag-atlanta-motor-speedway","tag-brad-keselowski","tag-folds-of-honor-quiktrip-500","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-2022","tag-nascar-cup-series","tag-penalty","tag-rd-center","tag-roush-fenway-keselowski-racing"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3353"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}