Carpenter failed to make last Sunday's race at Talladega, and later had somewhat of a confrontation in plain view of the entire Talladega garage with his crew chief who blamed Patrick -- not the car -- as the reason the No. 10 car wasn't in the race.
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Carpentier, who was already scheduled to leave the team at the end of 2009, later posted a response to the incident on his web site:
"I think it's a complete lack of respect," said Carpentier. "I never was shy to take the blame when I thought it was my fault, but here, everybody knows that it's like driving in a straight line."
"I've looked at the timing data and we were already three-tenths below the time we needed to qualify when I went below the line. I went low because I felt we had to try everything. I gave it all I had, but now he blames me? This is totally unacceptable. It's not as if my teammates were on the first row! They both ran slower than me!"
It's hard to deny Carpentier's logic, but at the same time, he and his publicist had to know that it was a risky move by posting the team's dirty laundry for everyone to see -- especially when its against a team that had a gossip-filled firing of Jeremy Mayfield a few years ago that revealed a team owner's relationship with a female driver, among other things.
Carpentier made 24 races in 2008 with a best finish of 14th and an average of 29th, though he won the pole for the first race New Hampshire Motor Speedway in June.
Mike Wallace will be in the No. 10 this weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway, and A.J. Allmendinger will finish out the season after a stint in the Michael Waltrip Racing No. 00 at LMS.
