Spotter Freddie Kraft shared more details about how NASCAR addressed its restart violation penalty that it assessed to Gio Ruggiero in the closing laps of the Craftsman Truck Series race at Watkins Glen on Friday evening.
On a restart on lap 69, Ruggiero is hit from behind by by Brenden “Butterbean” Queen right as he is coming to the beginning of the restart zone. NASCAR ruled that Ruggiero jumped the restart. The penalty sent him to the rear of the field, where his team decided to change tires and try to salvage what they could. They ended up finishing in 15th.
Here’s a replay of the restart where Gio Ruggiero was penalized for jumping early.
Gio told Frontstretch he was “apologized to” after the race (video coming soon). NASCAR had no further comment. pic.twitter.com/mK5MQTrJ7C
— Stephen Stumpf (@stephen_stumpf) May 9, 2026
Following the race, Ruggiero shared with FrontStretch that NASCAR had apologized to him, ““I think it was just a bad call. Obviously, you know, I didn’t jump the restart. I think we kinda just gave the 11 (Kaden Honeycutt) team a nice gift there. I definitely think we would have won the race or had a close battle with the 71 (Connor Zilisch).”
Ruggiero was later asked, “Was there any explanation afterward?” He answered, “We were just apologized to. … It was a bad call like I said, but there’s really nothing they can do about it now. So, it’s unfortunate, but gotta focus forward and on to Dover.”
“I think it was just a bad call. I didn’t jump the restart.”@Gio_Ruggiero1 talks about his day and his controversial penalty that took away his chance for the win @WGI. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/VTVhBusgkW
— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) May 9, 2026
Kraft shared more details on how NASCAR addressed the situation during the race. He said on the most recent episode of Door Bumper Clear, “[Gio Ruggiero] said immediately, he said, ‘The guy behind me hit me and kinda knocked me into the box and then I took off. … They finally show a replay. And this is two and a half laps later whatever it is. Now I come unglued because I see the replay and I’m like, ‘Wait a minute. We didn’t jump the [expletive] start.'”
As for NASCAR’s response, he said, “We’re coming to green through the carousel and they send a message on their little chat, ‘We’re rescinding your penalty, but we we can’t give you your spot back because came and put tires on.’ Now, my blood pressure went way higher than 127 over 72 because I’m like, ‘You have to be [expletive] kidding me.’ And after the race they were just like, ‘Hey, we’re really sorry.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, that fixes everything…’
From there he indicated that the team’s crew chief Jeff Stankiewicz implored NASCAR to extend the caution so the team could come back in and put the old tires back on the truck in order to get the precious track position back.
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