After a weekend of record breaking caution flags, a red flag for rain, and numerous crashes into the wall as a result of blown tires at Texas Motor Speedway in the first race of the second round of the playoffs for the Cup Series, NASCAR has handed down some hefty penalties for less than good driving behaviour.

In an on track incident in a second place battle Denny Hamlin and William Byron nearly made contact sending Byron up the track and against the wall.  A shot time later, Martin Truex Jr brought out the caution flag after getting into the wall.  During that caution, Byron chose to show his displeasure by bumping Hamlin in the rear.  While Byron claims that he only wanted to show some displeasure with a bump, he sent Hamlin through the grass.  Once back on the track Hamlin returned the favour and bumped Byron in the rear with by his own admission the intent of spinning Byron out.  Hamlin hit Byron several times and was heard on the radio that he would “get him”.  Hamlin has said that Byron is now on his list.

As a result of the altercation, NASCAR has reviewed the incident and issued a penalty on Byron that has some serious playoff implications.

NASCAR has docked Byron 25 drivers points and fined him $50,000.  Team owner Hendrick Motorsports was also docked 25 car owner points.

Prior to the penalty, Byron was in third place in the standings; but as a result of the lost points, he is now below the cut line in 10th place.

Hamlin received no penalty!

For the past several weeks, 19 year old Ty Gibbs has been driving for 23XI Racing as a replacement driver for the injured Kurt Busch.  When Busch suffered a head injury in July at Pocono Raceway Gibbs took over driving the number 45 car; but once the Cup Series reached the playoffs a switch was made and Gibbs was put in the number 23 car while Bubba Wallace took over driving duties for the number 45 to give the team the best chance of earning an owner’s championship with the number 45 car.

In a pit road incident missed at the time, veered over and hit Ty Dillon, nearly sending him into the pit boxes where crew members were working and NASCAR officials were observing.

Ty Gibbs is an Xfinity Series regular and was not docked any points; however, team owners 23XI Racing was docked 25 car owner points.  Gibbs was fined $75,000 for the incident.

This is not the first time that Ty Gibbs has been fined for his unsafe driving on pit road.  Earlier this season during an Xfinity Series race at Martinsville, Gibbs was fined $15,000 after he hit Sam Mayer while on pit road.  That incident also led to an aggressive discussion involving fists after the race.


Our Motorsports mechanic in the Xfinity Series Patrick Briody has been suspended indefinitely for violating the Substance Abuse Policy.  He will have to go through a number of protocols before NASCAR will consider reinstating him.