In the end, Brad Keselowski and Roger Penske were right.
The modifications their NASCAR Cup teams made to wheels that were confiscated on the Friday before the Daytona 500 weren’t deemed illegal by NASCAR. They avoided any punishment from the sanctioning body when NASCAR released its weekly penalty report on Wednesday.
Both Team Penske and RFK Racing had contended the modifications were made to ensure wheels could be properly removed and secured to the Next Car car.
When NASCAR announced penalties against Kaulig Racing and Money Team Racing for wheels that fell off their cars during the 500, it included the following statement:
“NASCAR met with Next Gen suppliers and several race teams this week to discuss wheel specifications. Following that discussion, NASCAR made small adjustments to increase the upper tolerance on pin and pilot bores for Fontana. NASCAR will reevaluate with suppliers and race teams and determine a path forward following this weekend’s race.”
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Hours after the wheels in question were confiscated on Friday, Keselowski told The Athletic and Fox Sports he was confident that when NASCAR saw data RFK Racing had about the wheels, they’d see the modifications were safety related over performance.
After winning the Daytona 500, Penske himself said there had been some level of communication with NASCAR over concerns the teams had about the wheels they were receiving not being consistent.
“We didn’t really get any feedback (from NASCAR), and at that point we went ahead and opened the holes (on the wheels) up,” Penske said. “We certainly talked about it with them. This wasn’t something we did under the covers trying to beat anybody. It was right there.”
Wednesday night, RFK Racing president Steve Newmark went on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio to discuss the wheel issue.
Newmark acknowledged there could have been better communication on his team’s part about the modifications.
“I think that maybe we could have jumped up and down a little better,” Newmark said. “Everything is moving so fast. And we’re all learning so quickly. Penske identified some stuff after the duels as I understand it. I think there is a lot of dialogue going on, there’s probably not perfect communication out there. I think that’s probably one of the lessons that we took away from this is that we need to do a better job in some of those areas.”
Newmark said there wasn’t “a particular moment in time when the lightbulb went completely off” about the issue with the wheels.
RFK Racing came to a gradual conclusion based off “an accumulation” of data seen in pit practice and what the team saw in the Daytona 500 qualifying races Thursday night.
“I think what we all have to realize is that in the past, all of our engineers and crew chiefs had notebooks and notebooks from prior races on how things operated, what the wear and tear on different parts and pieces was,” Newmark said. “And we don’t have that now. Now we’ll build up new notebooks. That’s what we’re in the process of doing. And really, I think you’re going to have to see over time, I’m sure a new issue will come up in the next couple of weeks, just because we’ll now have more races under our belt and these parts and pieces will have undergone additional laps, and there may be a different issue. And the key really is to make sure that the team’s particularly the one that we can control, which is RFK, is communicating everything that we see to NASCAR as quickly as we can.”
One crew chief of a RFK Racing competitor wishes there had been clearer communication on their part.
Ben Beshore, crew chief on Kyle Busch’s No. 18 Toyota, shared his thoughts on the situation with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Wednesday night.
“I think NASCAR did the right thing this week, getting everybody together and figuring out a plan going forward,” Beshore said. “Obviously, there was a reason why (Penske and RFK Racing made the modifications). It would have been nice for them to maybe bring that to the table for everyone else. I think NASCAR is doing the right thing and letting everybody modify them to make the pitstops more robust, less problems. It’ll put on a better show (so) we don’t have wheels stuck on the hubs or other cross threading problems that are caused by knocking in the centerbore over the hub. I think it’ll solve the problem. I think a lot of the stuffs just a learning curve.”