NASCAR competition officials reviewed every radio transmission and every bit of SMT data before deciding not to penalize any drivers for on-track behavioral reasons in the aftermath of the Cup Series race on Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway.
On Lap 48, Hill was spun hard into the wall by Van Gisbergen, and the Richard Childress Racing No. 33 team immediately felt like it was intentional and retaliatory for what transpired between them two weeks prior. SVG was leading the race on a mid-race restart when he was spun by Hill, triggering a multi-car melee.
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Van Gisbergen said he was ‘filthy’ afterwards, meaning he was frustrated in his Kiwi way.
On the TNT Sports broadcast after the race, the broadcast team broke down the SMT data and Jamie McMurray was adamant that all the data suggested it was intentional. However, Van Gisbergen never admitted any intent over the radio.
Thus, NASCAR officials concluded there was no basis in which to penalize Van Gisbergen. The process was detailed by NASCAR vice president of racing communications Mike Forde on the latest episode of the Hauler Talk podcast.
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“We looked to see if there were any anomalies throughout the race and something that spurred this that maybe was payback from earlier,” Forde said. “We went through all the radio transmissions to see if there was anything that rose to kind of a smoking gun. Camera angles and all available resources, as we always say. And nothing in our eyes proved definitively this was 100 percent intentional and penalty-worthy.”
Hill also door slammed Van Gisbergen under caution and NASCAR chose not to penalize that as well. However, the Sanctioning Body is bringing both drivers into the Cup Series hauler next weekend to discuss the matter.
“We want to have a discussion and make sure that it doesn’t boil over into a significant problem at Atlanta or beyond,” Forde said. “So, we plan to have that conversation on Saturday.”
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NASCAR has previously penalized the likes of Denny Hamlin and Ryan Preece for retaliatory actions on the track but again, SVG did not admit doubt.
“There’s enough reasonable doubt to where it didn’t rise to the penalty for us here,” Forde said. “If you remove that reasonable doubt, then you’re going to get a penalty. If you say you’re going to do it and then do it, that is going to rise to the level of a penalty.”
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NASCAR also reviewed the contact from Zane Smith to Carson Hocevar and is also bringing those two into the hauler.
“The same review went into it, and nothing rose to the level of there being no doubt it was intentional, so we are opting to not penalize there,” Forde said. “But we’ll be having a conversation in the hauler between those two drivers, too. So it’ll be a busy hauler.”
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