Martin Truex Jr. violated NASCAR rules when he passed Kevin Harvick to the left on pit road, NASCAR executive vice president Steve O’Donnell told SiriusXM Radio on Monday morning.
Truex was penalized on Lap 196 after making the pass on pit road during Saturday’s Sprint Cup Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway. He exited pit road in the lead prior to the penalty, then dropped to 22nd in the field and fought his way back to the front before joining a group of drivers pitting for gas late in the race. He went on to finish 10th and questioned the call in his post-race comments.
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O’Donnell said Monday that “it is clear in the rulebook that you can’t pass to the left.
"It’s also brought up in every drivers meeting. ... If you look at drivers pulling off just as they pull into their pits and kind of pull up alongside of a car, sure that’s happened. I probably relate this to other sports.”
O'Donnell added that sometimes the rule is pushed when a driver pulls alongside a competitor's car as he is swinging into his pits.
This case was apparently a bit more extreme. O’Donnell talked about sports in general and how sometimes a rule starts getting pushed and, therefore, has to be re-emphasized by NASCAR. In this case, NASCAR saw a trend and then a “blatant” pass and felt “we had to make that call.”
Officials plan to reiterate the rule prior to this weekend’s race at New Hampshire, O’Donnell said.