NASCAR points the finger squarely at the teams for the mess in Pocono qualifying.
If the starting grid for the Gander Outdoors 400 at Pocono Raceway on Sunday looks a little topsy turvy to you, there’s a good reason for that. The final 13 cars in the lineup are a veritable who’s who of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, including the likes of Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney and Jimmie Johnson.
Those teams all did better than their starting spots would indicate when they hit the track for qualifying in Long Pond on Saturday. The problem is they didn’t pass post-qualifying inspection, resulting in all 13 cars getting sent to the back of the field. As a result, the opening laps of the Gander Outdoors 400 stand to be quite interesting as some fast cars, including the original pole-sitting No. 4 Ford of Harvick, come up through the field past slower vehicles.
That said, it’s kind of a bad look for so many teams to miss on qualifying, a fact not lost on NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller. When he faced the media Saturday evening, Miller was asked if the large number of inspection penalties indicate that the inspection process needs to be modified in some way. He responded with multiple firm no’s, then added that the inspections are the same for everyone.
“27 of them can do it right, the other 13 can do it right,” Miller said.
Miller said the body scan portion of inspection was responsible for most of the penalties, though not all of them.
The interesting part is that the violations didn’t even run consistently within the same team. Kyle Busch failed, but all three of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates passed, and will start 1-2-3 when the green flag drops. Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney are among the back of the field bunch, but Brad Keselowski and his No. 2 Ford were judged to be okay.
NASCAR might have to use the stick and not the carrot when it comes to inspection violations. When the powers that be threatened tougher penalties for cars that didn’t have their roofs and rear windows within the rules, a hot topic earlier in the 2018 season, those violations not so mysteriously dried up. The tolerances for body scans and chassis irregularities don’t sound like they’re changing, so race teams will have to take them more seriously or NASCAR will figure out a way to make them do it.