In the post-race inspection process after the M&M’s Fan Appreciation 400: the Joe Gibbs Racing’s number eleven and number 18 cars were disqualified and are on the way to the NASCAR R&D center for further evaluation.

 

The disqualification erases a record setting win for Denny Hamlin in the number eleven car and wipes out a second place finish for Kyle Busch.

 

As a result, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch will be dropped to the 35th and 36th finishing spots with Chase Elliott being named the race winner for his fourth win of the season.  All other drivers will move up two spots in the finishing order and will earn the accompanying points.

 

Announcing that the issue was related to the front fascia on both cars, NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran, said,”there was some issues discovered that affect aero of the vehicle. The part was the front fascia.  And there really was no reason why there was some material that was somewhere that it shouldn‘t have been, and that does basically come down to a DQ.  We can‘t get into all the details of what the issues were, but both vehicles had the same issues and unfortunately they were not acceptable to pass the inspection.”

 

Moran added, “we saw enough that the DQ was warranted and we are bringing the vehicles back for further evaluation.  So we will look much closer at both vehicles, but as of right now, no, we are hopefully not going to find anything else. But we are going to inspect them further when we get back to the R&D center.”

 

He concluded, “it’s unfortunate. We don‘t want to be here talking about this.  We just saw a great race. The last thing we want to do is meet here afterwards and talk about this problem. But the teams and the owners and everybody is well aware that this new car was going to be kept with some pretty tight tolerances, and there‘s some areas that all the teams are well aware that we cannot be going down the path that we had in the past with the other car.  So it is partly to do with the new car and the rules have tightened up. Everyone has to abide by our new rules, which everybody‘s well aware of.”

 

This is the first disqualification in the Cup Series under the new stricter rules and the Next Gen car.

 

According to Moran, at this time the infractions Merritt no further punishment.

 

JGR owner Joe Gibbs has until noon on Monday, July 25 to appeal the penalties.