After finishing eighth in Saturday's Aaron's 312 at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday, Patrick Carpentier went to the Media Center as the top finishing rookie in the top-10. While answering questions, he was asked about the two pit-road penalties the No. 9 Dodge Gillett Evernham Motorsports team received in the second half of the race.
The first was for not blending properly coming off of pit road; which resulted in a pass through penalty. It was determined Carpentier repeated the infraction, again, when he returned to the track. That resulted in him being called to pit road where he had to turn off the engine and was addressed by a NASCAR Nationwide Series official.
The second penalty put the team a lap down. They returned to lead-lap status when a caution came out on lap 100 for debris. In the end, Carpentier finished on the lead lap in eighth place.
During his post-race media center visit, Carpentier eluded that NASCAR changed the rule issued during the Driver/Crew Chief Meeting about the left-side tires remaining on the yellow line until exiting Turn 2. He believed he came off pit road correctly, per what the team understood from NASCAR, on the second occurrence, as well.
"I would like to correct what I said during my post-race comments," Carpentier said after a meeting with NASCAR. "We misunderstood what we were being penalized for and thought NASCAR had changed what they said during the drivers' meeting. That was not the case because it wouldn't be safe for them to change the blend rule midway through a race; especially one at Talladega. After talking with NASCAR later on Saturday, that wasn't what happened. We, as a team, misunderstood the rule in regards to how we were to return to the racing surface off pit road."
In the three Nationwide Series races Carpentier has entered this year, he has earned a top-10 in each of them.
From Heath White // Team Communications // Gillett Evernham Motorsports
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