“If my driver does something… unlawful…shouldn’t happen in NASCAR.” Kaulig Racing President Chris Rice was fuming after the incident involving his team at the Circuit of The Americas. His No. 10 Chevrolet driver, Ty Dillon, fell prey to retaliatory antics by Roger Penske‘s star. Dillon apparently wedged Austin Cindric out of the way on lap 3. Then, Cindric responded by aggressively dumping Dillon on the frontstretch.

Initially, social media was filled with reports that the damage to the No. 10 was minimal. While doling out its response, NASCAR was also lenient. It stopped short of handing Cindric a one-race suspension – contrary to precedents involving Chase Elliott (2023) and Bubba Wallace (2022). But Chris Rice is far from satisfied.

Calls for a harsher punishment for Austin Cindric

Well, NASCAR’s reasoning for not suspending Austin Cindric revolved around the racetrack. Being a road course with lower speeds and tighter confines, the incident was not a caution-worthy one. Instead, Roger Penske’s racer was handed a 50-driver point penalty, dropping from 11th to 35th in the standings. Cindric also landed a $50,000 fine. Carson Hocevar incurred a similar fine last year in Nashville, where he hooked Harrison Burton in the right rear. Cindric also right-rear hooked Ty Dillon – but the latter’s team president says the financial penalty is hardly enough.

In a recent interview with Sirius XM NASCAR, Chris Rice declared outright: “I hate it. I hate it for our race team.” Moreover, he claimed that the damage cost was no less, scoffing at reports that Ty Dillon’s car was not so battered by Austin Cindric. “It still was a big number for Kaulig Racing, money wise. I know I read something yesterday that it didn’t tear up the car, wasn’t that much money, didn’t hurt that car. I mean, it was a big number.” A big one indeed.

Chris Rice then dove into details – specifying exactly where Austin Cindric dented the No. 10 Chevy. “You know, front clip, upright on the right, front nose, bumper, hood, right front fender, about five to eight positions in the race, and you know, whatever points that is. So, I mean, you could keep going deeper and deeper when you look at that.” Rice also specified the efforts involved: “He did hit the wall on the front straightaway with the right front, he goes down in Turn 1 and the right front wouldn’t turn. They went a lap down fixing it. And then we took two whole Stages to get back that lap and get back to the field.” Rice was surely very clear in his words.

Finally, Chris Rice laid his verdict – that NASCAR’s monetary fine for Austin Cindric is too low. He said, “It’s gonna be six figures for sure by the time you fix it and it’s out of service and things like that. And not saying that that couldn’t have happened any other time, but for that wreck, that’s what it was,” citing that the figures crossed the $100,000 threshold.

Rice’s mood is in the doldrums as his whole team suffered. He also delved into what happened with AJ Allmendinger – although that did not involve another driver.

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Mechanical issues blocked the road course ace

AJ Allmendinger owns three road course race victories: Watkins Glen (2014), Indianapolis (2021), and Charlotte (2023). So the No. 16 Chevy driver topped the winner’s prediction charts ahead of the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. After qualifying in 12th place, Allmendinger showcased his road racing skills, climbing up to the top ranks in no time. He ran in the top five for most of the day, leading for almost two laps. But bad luck descended the final stage – he faded from the top five to a disappointing 15th-place finish. His fans wondered what went wrong, and apparently, tire issues plagued the driver.

The team dissected the problem and discovered that the tire somehow wasn’t tightened fully. This led to a bad vibration which cut back Allmendinger’s pace. Chris Rice explained what happened: “The right front tire, and we haven’t dug into why it was, it was just a little bit loose. It ended up being a little bit loose, which made it vibrate, harmonic, and it felt like a really bad set of tires. [AJ] couldn’t turn left like he needed to turn left. And it really hurt him.” Yet Rice did not blame Austin Holland, the front-changer. Instead, he pointed his fingers at the air gun leased from NASCAR. “I talked to Elton [Sawyer] about that yesterday. They’re gonna check that out also for us because we leased those guns from NASCAR.”

Evidently, Kaulig Racing faced a miserable weekend at COTA. From cursing Roger Penske’s driver Austin Cindric to lamenting about AJ Allmendinger, Rice had his plate full. Let us see if they can work past these issues in the following races.