Four crew members suspended in wake of Texas altercation; no drivers penalized
Four crew members, including three from Jeff Gordon's team, were suspended and fined for their actions during the fracas following the Texas race on Sunday stemming from contact between Brad Keselowski and Gordon.
Neither Gordon or Keselowski, nor Kevin Harvick, the driver who pushed Keselowski to incite the melee, were penalized.
After Keselowski and Gordon made contact that gave Gordon a flat tire, Gordon confronted Keselowski on pit road after the race in the midst of many crew members. Once Harvick pushed Keselowski, Gordon reached for the 2012 champion and a fight ensued, with crew members jumping in and throwing punches.
Jeremy Fuller, the rear-tire changer for Kahne's car, Jason Ingle, the engine tuner for Gordon's car and Dwayne Doucette, a mechanic for Gordon's car, were suspended for six points races and each fined $25,000 for their role in the brawl. According to a NASCAR release, the three violated rule 12-1, Actions detrimental to stock car racing and 12-4.9, Behavioral penalty -- involved in a post-race physical altercation with a driver on pit road.
You can see Fuller (in the Great Clips uniform) in the video above reaching to punch Keselowski over other people with approximately 48 second remaining.
Dean Mozingo, the hauler driver for Gordon, was found in violation of the two rules as well and suspended three races and fined $10,000.
In addition to the crew suspensions, Kenny Francis, the crew chief for Kahne, and Alan Gustafson, the crew chief for Gordon, were each fined $50,000 and placed on probation for six races because according to 9-4A, the crew chief assumes responsibility for the actions of his team members.
“While the intensity and emotions are high as we continue through the final rounds of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, the actions that we saw from several crew members Sunday following the race at Texas are unacceptable,” NASCAR senior vice president of competition and racing development Robin Pemberton said in a statement. “We reviewed the content that was available to us of the post-race incident along pit road, and identified several crew members who crossed the line with their actions, specifically punching others.”
“We therefore have penalized four crew members as well as their crew chiefs, as they ultimately are responsible for members of their team per the NASCAR rule book. A NASCAR championship is at stake, but we can’t allow behavior that crosses the line to go unchecked, particularly when it puts others in harm’s way.”
It's not surprising that Gordon and Keselowski were not punished. Based off of the footage, they look like they were swallowed up in the mess of people more than anything. Of the three, Harvick was the most likely to be suspended because of the shove. But as this Washington Post piece published Tuesday notes, with NASCAR's promotion of Harvick's shove, the competition side of the sanctioning body was in a tough spot if there was a penalty.
The incident was the second altercation in four weeks after Keselowski was grabbed from behind by Matt Kenseth at Charlotte. After that incident, which ended with a mess of crew members in a pack between two haulers, the only penalties given out were to Keselowski and Denny Hamlin for their actions with their cars after the race.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
