NASCAR has fined both Matt Crafton and Nick Sanchez for their involvement in a post-race fight that transpired in the garage on Saturday after the Craftsman Truck Series race at Talladega.
Crafton has been fined $25,000, while Sanchez was fined $5,000. Additionally, Sanchez’s father, Rene Sanchez, has been suspended for the remaining two races of the season due to his involvement in the incident.
On the track, contact transpired between the two drivers in the closing stages of the race that caused Crafton to spin and triggered a multiple truck incident. Sanchez continued on but Crafton was forced to retire from the race and parked his damage truck in the Sanchez pit box.
After the race, Crafton confronted Sanchez confronted Sanchez and the two needed to be separated. Sanchez said he was tapped on the back and ‘sucker punched’ when he turned around. Crafton said words were exchanged first.
Regardless, Sanchez was bloodied and threatened in the heat of the moment to “to kill” Crafton at Homestead-Miami Speedway while being held back by fellow driver Cory Roper. Crafton said Sanchez was (screwing) with the wrong (person).
Why no suspensions for Matt Crafton, Nick Sanchez?
NASCAR investigated the incident and landed on this penalty for reasons best articulated by the league’s senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer.
“As we dug deeper into that, looking at the timeline, and we normally, as you guys have heard us say many times, we want our drivers to show their emotions but also be able to handle that on their own,” Sawyer said. “Unfortunately, in this case, we had to get involved.
“Looking at the timeline, we felt things could have been handled differently and we landed on the penalties and the suspension as we did.”
NASCAR could have opted to suspend either of the drivers under the member code of conduct in the rule book but chose not to.
Why no driver suspension?
“If you look at our history with our drivers and how we’ve handled these situations, a suspension was definitely considered,” Sawyer said. “We had a long conversation yesterday about that with our group.
“This is where we landed: We felt some of the conversations that were made by Nick, and we understand it’s in the heat of the battle, but we can’t have those type of comments. That’s why he received the fine he received. On Matt’s side, we looked at he had some time to think about the situation. It wasn’t like both drivers got out on pit road … This one spilled over into the garage sometime after the event. Felt like that could have been handled different. That’s why Matt’s fine was $25,000”
As for Rene Sanchez:
“And then having other people involved in that situation, whether it’s family or pit crew members, it doesn’t matter,” Sawyer said. “If you’re trying to break it up, that’s one thing but if you’re in the middle and throwing punches, we’re going to react. We’re not going to tolerate that kind of behavior.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.