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The Underdog House: Where was the Outrage… For Corey Lajoie?

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Think Small

Checking out social media on Monday, there were a lot of posts expressing outrage at Matt Kenseth being parked Sunday at Kansas for having too many crewmen working on his car after damage put him on the five-minute clock.  Kenseth’s disqualification took him out of the playoffs in what may be his last season with a competitive team in the Cup Series, and fans were unhappy that a seemingly small infraction ended his hopes for a second title.

So, where was the outrage a couple of weeks ago at Charlotte, when Corey LaJoie got the same penalty for the same infraction?  No, LaJoie is not in the playoffs, not in the twilight of a championship career, not driving for Joe Gibbs Racing.

So what?

The penalty was given exactly as the NASCAR rulebook reads, and NASCAR handled it consistently (and before you ask, the seventh man over the wall for the No. 48 Sunday was servicing the driver, and teams get permission for that from NASCAR prior to the seventh man going over, so there is zero argument there) …just like fans have said they want to happen. A penalty, or lack of one, can’t be acceptable for one team and not another, regardless of the size of the team or whether the team is in the playoffs.

NASCAR shouldn’t punish a backmarker team and not a frontrunner, nor should they overlook an infraction for a small team just because the team isn’t contending for a top finish, and they have not done that.  In turn, fans don’t get to pick and choose, either.  Something is worth outrage (or praise) or it’s not.

Top of the Class: Kansas

Ryan Blaney was best in class this week, finishing fourth, and more importantly, securing his spot in the round of 8 in the NASCAR playoffs.

Chris Buescher had a strong race, matching his season-best sixth place with a race that looked a bit like his XFINITY Series title form of 2015.  Buescher has stability on his side going into 2018, so he’s worth watching if he can string together more solid runs.

Aric Almirola would probably like to forget the spring race at Kansas, where he suffered a broken vertebra after a hard crash that caused him to miss several weeks of competition.  This time around, Almirola posted a ninth-place finish, his fifth top 10 of the season and his best intermediate track finish of 2017.

Passing Grades

Three drivers had a strong weekend that landed them in the top 20 at Kansas, which is not as easy a feat as it is for a team with more resources.  Ty Dillon posted a 16th-place finish, his second top-20 run in a row.  David Ragan also put together solid runs back to back, finishing 17th after his top-10 at Talladega and making a case for Front Row Motorsports to keep him around next year.  Michael McDowell posted his 14th top 20 of the season, handily beating his 2016 total of 10.

The next group of drivers all needed a strong finish and delivered handily this weekend. Matt DiBenedetto (22nd) posted his best finish since he ran eighth at Indianapolis earlier this summer. Landon Cassill put together the kind of run he’s been capable of all year with a 23rd place, about where his team should be looking to run each week. Cole Whitt (24th), Reed Sorenson (25th) and Jeffrey Earnhardt (26th) all put together some of their best runs of the season at a track where they were not expected to perform.

Corey Lajoie (27th), Gray Gaulding (28th, the second Premium Motorsports driver in the top 30), and BJ McLeod also posted top-30 finishes, which is a decent day for all three.

Needs Improvement

Not making it out of the bottom 25 percent of the field this week were Brett Moffitt (31st), AJ Allmendinger (32nd after a late-race crash), and Derrike Cope (40th). Cope made his first start with the brand-new No. 00 StarCom team only to head to the garage after just 35 laps. Will this new effort simply become a start-and-park?

Newsworthy

Former ARCA Rookie of the Year Kyle Weatherman will make his Cup Series debut this weekend for Rick Ware Racing.  In an ARCA release, Weatherman said, “I am so excited to get this unbelievable opportunity to make my first start at the NASCAR Cup level. I am so thankful for all of the people who have helped me along the way and I am literally shaking. Thanks to Rick Ware for providing me the opportunity and believing and trusting I can do a good job for his team.”

Congrats are in order for Landon Cassill and his wife, Katie. They welcomed their second child, daughter Daphne, into the world last week.

Say anything

Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.

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kb

I cannot stand Kenseth, since forever and I am not ever going to stick up for him, But NASCAR is dense! The anger I believe is the way penalties are applied, or not You know they (NASCAR) are doing something wrong when every damn Monday the MINION of Brian, Steve Dumb Wonder is on some NASCAR radio talk show, trying badly to explain their position and reasoning…AT THAT TIME for some BS rule/call. Never mind what the stupid rule book says, it does not exist when they don’t want it to! They wave it (rulebook) around like THE BIBLE when they decide to stick to the rules of the stated BIBLE. That is the problem, imo. They just look like idiots….

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DoninAjax

Corey proves the point about the disappearing drivers, cars and sponsors when Brian’s farce begins. It’s as much the network as NA$CAR. If the driver doesn’t fit into the network’s script they might as well not show up and save the sponsor some dollars and the owner the weekend expenses.

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DoninAjax

If you take the finishes of the 00, 83, 51, 55, 23, 33, 15, 72, and 32 and take out the finishes of the cars that normally finish ahead of them they finish in the final positions like they usually do.

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