WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — While one TRICON Garage driver celebrated his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win on Friday (May 8) at Watkins Glen International, another was left confused and wondering what could’ve been.
Gio Ruggiero was seeking his first Truck win of the season and had just taken the lead away from a dominant Connor Zilisch on lap 65. The field quickly reset for a series of restarts, and on the penultimate restart of the race on lap 68, Ruggiero was handed a questionable penalty for jumping the restart.
Replays of the restart showed that Ruggiero received a bump from Brenden Queen, the truck lined up behind him, and that bump propelled Ruggiero’s No. 17 forward right before he reached the restart zone.
Even though Ruggiero was propelled forward by the truck behind him and didn’t accelerate on his own before the restart zone, the penalty stood, and he was sent to the rear of the field.
Ruggiero drove all the way up to 15th in the final two laps of the race, but it did little to quell the frustration and disappointment of a potential win slipping out of the No. 17 team’s fingers.
“I think it was just a bad call, obviously,” Ruggiero told Frontstretch. “I didn’t jump the restart.
“I think we just gave the No. 11 team (Kaden Honeycutt) a nice gift there. We definitely would’ve won the race or had a close battle with the No. 71 (Zilisch). Just really happy with the fact that we were going to be on the front row for the final two restarts of the last two weeks and to be in contention to win. …
“Really unfortunate from a points standpoint and everything in general. Everybody on this team just works really hard and puts all their time and dedication into this to have that happen.”
Ruggiero visited the NASCAR hauler after the conclusion of the race, and when asked if he received any further explanation, he said, “we were just apologized to.”
“It was a bad call, like I said,” Ruggiero added. “But there’s really nothing (NASCAR) can do about it now. So it’s unfortunate, but got to focus forward and on to Dover.”
What’s done is done.
On a lighter note, Ruggiero currently sits fourth in points and has shown speed at a variety of different tracks in recent weeks. And while the ending of Watkins Glen will sting, there is plenty that Ruggiero and the No. 17 camp have to look forward to as we move closer to the midpoint of the season.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf
In these days of television and instant replay, this is unacceptable. This is not your local short track. NASCAR is no smarter now than 50 years ago. Bumbling and dopey. This is also a business and apologies don’t buy race parts. You cannot reproduce what might have been but Gio and team deserve more than 15th place points and $.
At least he didn’t take off 5 miles early or whatever dumb ass Conor Zilisch said about Chastain. BTW, that also was a horrible penalty as Conor hit the brakes just as the trucks approached the restart line to make it look like Ross jumped.