After the race at Phoenix Raceway Denny Hamlin admitted to hitting Ross Chastain on purpose and sending Chastain into the wall during his podcast “Actions Detrimental”. As a result, NASCAR penalized Hamlin $50,000.
Hamlin chose to appeal his penalty based on the grounds that NASCAR waited until after the incident instead of assessing a penalty at the time of the wreck.
On April 6, the National Motorsport Appeals Panel ruled that the penalty against Denny Hamlin would stand. Along with the fine, Hamlin has been docked 25 driver points in the standings.
With the penalty being upheld, Hamlin holds on to his 12th place in the points standings.
In assessing the penalty, NASCAR cited the Rule Book and a violation of the Member Code of Conduct Sections 4.4B which relates to manipulating the outcome of a race by wrecking or spinning out a fellow racer on purpose; and part D which refers to actions detrimental to racing.
On April 5, the National Motorsports Appeals Panel upheld the penalty against the Kaulig Racing number 31 car driven by Justin Haley after the team was penalized for modifying the hood louvers. The louvers were found during the pre-race inspection before the race at Phoenix Raceway.
The original penalty was a four race suspension for crew chief Trent Owens, a $100,000 fine, the docking of 100 driver and 100 car owner points, and the docking of 10 playoff points.
The Appeals Panel made one small modification to the penalty – reducing the penalty of 100 driver and owner points to 75 points.
Kaulig Racing has decided to make a Final Appeal of the ruling.
The major different between the Hendrick Motorsports penalties and the Kaulig Racing penalty is the timing of the discoveries. The hood louvers on the HMS cars were discovered prior to practice and confiscated after said practice; while the Kaulig Racing louvers were discovered during the pre-race inspection process.