Sammy Smith recently addressed the swing of emotions after he inherited the win from Jesse Love. The RCR racer nearly secured his second win of the season at Rockingham, but then his No. 2 Chevy failed the post-race inspection, forcing the sanctioning body to disqualify him and strip him of the win.
But RCR isn’t backing down, the team confirmed its appeal on Monday with a brief statement, and now a prominent reporter has added more to the ongoing saga.
Bob Pockrass Provides More Insights Into the Ongoing NASCAR-RCR Standoff
NASCAR’s long-awaited Rockingham return delivered on all fronts. The NASCAR Xfinity Race at Rockingham was a blockbuster, and it had everything – drama, non-stop action, and a twist ending that nobody saw coming.
Jesse Love, the 20-year-old phenomenon, took the checkered flag at the 0.94-mile oval in a race that saw 14 cautions, two red flags, and a late overtime restart. The RCR driver showed tremendous skill, capturing the lead in the final restart to eventually win the 256-lap race.
But his valiant effort went in vain three hours later when NASCAR disqualified him, citing section 14.14.2.I-5.H of its rulebook. He went from first to 37th in a few hours, while Smith inherited a win and a $100,000 cash prize.
Subsequently, RCR challenged the organization’s ruling and confirmed it with a brief statement. Now, senior FOX reporter Bob Pockrass has made more revelations about the story.
Taking things to social media, the veteran shared a tweet that read – “RCR appeal of Jesse Love DQ will be Wednesday morning. When a race DQ involves a win, typically the appeal is that week, so everyone goes into the next race knowing who has a win that would earn them a playoff bid.”
But, here in the case, Love already has a win under his belt when he won the United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway earlier this year. Now, the aforementioned rule stipulates that all mating surfaces between the truck trailing arm and the U-bolt saddle must be in complete contact with each other.
A vehicle’s rear axle housing is usually bolted to the chassis by a U-bolt. The rule states that all the pieces held together by this bolt must be in contact with each other. NASCAR officials generally check the gap in the post-race inspection to make sure that none of the pieces are more than 0.010 inches apart.
So why stress about such a minor issue? Well, lowering the torque to a lower value provides more flex to the rear axle, essentially improving the feedback. This can be an added advantage to drivers/teams.
That being said, the concerned authorities will conclude the appeal this week before the action reaches Talladega; until then, Love and RCR will have to wait.
