Penske Racing may have cut a deal with Front Row Motorsports in the closing laps at Richmond for track position to help get #22-Joey Logano in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. In radio communications reviewed Wednesday by The Associated Press for Front Row driver #38-David Gilliland, his spotter informs the team of a request to let Logano pass him in the final laps of Saturday nights race. Logano was trying to claim a spot in the 12-driver Chase field. Both Penske and Front Row are Ford teams and thus considered partners. A voice on the radio, believed to be crew chief Frank Kerr, asks who the request is coming from. The spotter replies: ‘Weve got the big dog and all his cronies.” Kerr then says: ‘Travis knows what Ive been asking for’ an apparent reference to Penske Racing competition director Travis Geisler. Logano passed Gilliland on a restart and finished 22nd, one spot ahead of Gilliland and good enough for a berth in the Chase field. ‘Good job, good job, man’ the spotter says after the race. ‘Hopefully well get something out of that.” Statistics analyzed by AP also show Gillilands lap times dropped off by almost 1 second from the times he was running prior to the radio communication.( Associated Press )(9-11-2013) UPDATE: ‘NASCAR is aware of reports about the #22 and #38 radio communications at Richmond International Raceway and is looking into it, but has yet to see anything in full context that requires any action.”(NASCAR)
