Matt Kenseth and his team were hit with a 15-point penalty by NASCAR on Wednesday but the team will still get to use the three bonus points it accrued for winning Sunday’s race in the Chase.
Kenseth’s car failed post-race laser inspection following his win (a P3 penalty on NASCAR’s five-level scale). While NASCAR wasn’t going to take the win away from Kenseth and give it to second-place Tony Stewart, it was conceivable that if the sanctioning body felt the infraction was serious enough it wouldn’t allow Kenseth to count the win at the beginning of the Chase. But there was no mention of bonus points being taken away in the NASCAR penalty report.
Drivers who win in the regular season are given three additional points per win at the start of the Chase in an attempt to incentivize winning.
NASCAR didn’t even suspend crew chief Jason Ratcliff either. He was fined $25,000.
With the points penalty, Kenseth drops from eighth to ninth (behind Jimmie Johnson) in the points standings.
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