NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell, appearing on ‘The Morning Drive’ on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Monday, said he did not expect the sanctioning body to take action against Joe Gibbs Racing for its strategy of dropping three cars to the back of the pack during Sunday’s Chase elimination race at Talladega Superspeedway. O’Donnell said employing that strategy did not constitute a violation of NASCAR’s 100% rule. ‘I would say that they do not fall into that,’ O’Donnell said when asked about the 100% rule. ‘The spirit of that rule is really to prevent somebody from intentionally allowing another teammate to do something that would not be really within the spirit of the rules of the race. In this case, we look at the strategy decision that the team made, and they executed it. ‘¦ In this case, that wouldn’t be something that we look at that violated that rule.’(NASCAR). The 100% rule: ‘NASCAR requires its competitors to race at 100 percent of their ability with the goal of achieving their best possible finishing position in an event’ (ESPN)
AND #20-Kenseth finished 28th, #20-Edwards 29th and #18-Busch 30th at Talladega, good enough to advance to the semifinal round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. The three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers never made much of a move, dropping to the rear of the field before the green flag ever fell and staying there throughout the day.(ESPN)
