MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Team co-owner and NASCAR Cup driver Brad Keselowski said Friday RFK Racing incurred severe penalties following the Atlanta Motor Speedway event for a tail panel they had repaired. 

“We didn’t want to run that tail panel,” Keselowski told Dustin Long of NBC Sports during preparations for Sunday’s Blue-Emu 400 at Martinsville Speedway. “If we’d had a new one, we would have run it to begin with. We made our repairs in good faith, but we probably didn’t do a great job.  

“Do I think there was a competitive advantage? Probably not. But we put NASCAR in a tough position having to make a judgment call and that’s not fair to them. It’s one of those situations where I don’t think anybody’s really wrong. Nobody’s really right. It’s probably one of those situations that if we could repeat, we would have begged, borrowed and stolen a new tail and put it on the car. That’s not the world we’re living in. That’s being fixed, but this is the world we’re in now and we’ll go make the most of it.”

After the March 20 Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at AMS, NASCAR took Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford to its Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C. Later that week, NASCAR cited the RFK No. 6 team for modifying a single source supplied part. One hundred driver points were taken from Keselowski’s total, 100 points were ducted from RFK Racing’s owner standings, the team was penalized 10 playoff points, and crew chief Matt McCall was fined $100,000 and suspended for the next four Cup point races.

The penalties dropped Keselowski from 16th in the driver standings immediately after the Atlanta race to 35th.  

RFK Racing appealed the penalties. On Thursday, the National Motorsports Appeals Panel affirmed and upheld the original penalties assessed by NASCAR. RFK Racing said it was “disappointed” in the appeal hearing’s outcome, but noted “we are advocates of the process NASCAR has set forth and appreciate the opportunity to make our voice heard in the matter.” The team also said it wouldn’t appeal the ruling to the National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer.

McCall elected to serve his suspension during the appeals process. His four-race suspension will conclude with the Easter weekend race at Bristol. Keselowski has gained four positions in the driver standings and enters Saturday’s Martinsville event in 31st. 

 

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