“We just got robbed in front of a 100,000 people,” Ganassi said. “Even if you say they froze the field, we had (Kenseth) and (Kahne) split and should have been no better than second. They come in the pits and then it goes yellow, and then we go in the pits as the race leader and come out third. How does that work?”
While the Ganassi group waited for NASCAR officials to return from race control, driver Mark Martin joined them. He, along with car owner Jack Roush, were summoned to the hauler because NASCAR felt Martin, a lapped car, was blocking the race leaders on the final restart of the race. Strangely enough, one of the drivers Martin was racing in the incident was McMurray. So, when Martin arrived, he and Sabates got into a brief profanity-laced exchange before they all went up in the hauler.
Roush, meanwhile, was still celebrating Kenseth’s win in Victory Lane, and didn’t join the group until much later. After nearly 40 minutes, Ganassi and Sabates came out declaring NASCAR was not going to change its decision, but emphasizing their belief McMurray was the winner. “There was no explanation. There was no reviewing (of tape). Nothing,” Sabates said. “Sometimes you win, sometimes you get the shaft and sometimes you get the elevator. We got the shaft this time.”
And what of NASCAR’s explanation? “Now that we dont race back to the yellow, when the yellow comes out, all the positions are frozen. It was our determination in timing and scoring (Kenseth) and (Kahne) were still on the lead lap when the caution came out. We gave them what they lost when the pace car went by them and gave them that lap back.” The reasoning didn’t sit well with the Ganassi group, who left frustrated and angry. And Martin didn’t appear particularly satisfied with his visit either when he finally emerged from the hauler. “I’m disappointed because the people in the sport know I have a lot of integrity,” he said. “I watched it on the tape and I didn’t see anything. I was racing and wasn’t in anybody’s way.”(ThatsRacin.com)(2-23-2004)