Hastily organized or not, at least there was a media availability Monday evening from NASCAR President Mike Helton and Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton regarding the penalties assessed to Michael Waltrip Racing from earlier in the day.
Perhaps the most noteworthy item from the press conference was Helton’s admission that based on available evidence, it was actually the radio transmission between MWR driver Brian Vickers and crew, and not Clint Bowyer’s caution-causing spin, that triggered the fines, points penalties and ultimate removal of Martin Truex Jr. from the 2013 NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup.
“There’s not conclusive evidence that the 15 spin was intentional. There’s a lot of chatter. There’s the video showing a car spinning. But we didn’t see anything conclusive that that was intentional,” Helton said.
Helton said that the combination of video evidence, timing & scoring information, and radio conversations are all available at NASCAR’s disposal to utilize. He and other NASCAR senior officials spent Sunday and all of Monday discussing the circumstances, and invited MWR team officials to NASCAR’s Research & Development Center.
The conversation then shifted to what had, in fact, been the cause for penalty in NASCAR’s eyes and that’s where Helton took the chance to elaborate.
“The preponderance of things that happened by Michael Waltrip Racing Saturday night, the most clear was the direction that the 55 car was given, and the confusion around it, and then the conversation following that occurrence. That is the most clear part of that preponderance. That is the most clear part of what we found in all the detail to make that conclusion,” Helton said.
Helton said Ty Norris, who received an indefinite suspension as a result, admitted to the radio transmission.
“Ty confirmed the conversation that most everyone in this room has heard over the radio with the 55 driver,” Helton said.
Attacks from teams, team members, fans and media on NASCAR’s credibility have been heard, and Helton said NASCAR has to work to maintain its level of credibility.
“As far the as credibility of the sport, NASCAR has always taken very serious its responsibility to maintain for the most part its credibility,” he said. “I say ‘maintain for the most part,’ because we get the fact that that’s subjective to fans and others in the industry. But that’s why we’re sitting here, in hopes that we did that. Sometimes it gets out of bounds in order to maintain credibility.”
If credibility isn’t on the line for NASCAR on the whole, it certainly is for Waltrip’s team, which now has another black eye after a major issue at its first ever race as a team in the 2007 Daytona 500.
