After Kaulig Racing filed an appeal over NASCAR’s penalty in relation to the hood louvers on the number 31 car prior to the race at Phoenix Raceway, the National Appeals Panel upheld most of the penalty with a slight change to the points deduction from 100 to 75 points.

Kaulig made one final appeal over the ruling and with some help from NASCAR the penalty has been amended again.

Final Appeals Officer Bill Mullis took some advice from NASCAR and has matched the penalty issued to the Hendrick Motorsports drivers – the $100,000 fine and race suspensions have been upheld; but the points deductions have been restored. 

Kaulig Racing’s driver of the number 31 car Justin Haley is now 25th in the point standings with 145 points.

Originally NASCAR had assessed an L2 penalty on Haley’s car citing unapproved parts modifications; as well as, all four of the Hendrick cars.  NASCAR determined that HMS and Kaulig had “modified” the hood louvers that are used to aid in cooling the engines.  The hood louvers are just one of many single source parts that are provided by NASCAR to the teams.

In his decision Mullis said,  “the Appellant violated the Rule(s) set forth in the Penalty Notice upholding the fine of $100,000 issued to the number 31 NASCAR Cup Series team of driver Justin Haley but removing the loss of 100 championship driver points and 10 Playoff points initially issued to Haley. The four-race suspension levied to crew chief Trent Owens remains, however.”

He added, “in the interest of fairness, NASCAR has requested that I remove the driver/owner race and playoff points from the penalty to Kaulig Racing.  I have agreed to this request, per the Rule Book. During its opening remarks, NASCAR stated it believes that the violations did occur, the penalties were appropriate and the three-person appeals panel ruled correctly. But, because the Kaulig infraction closely mirrored that of Hendrick Motorsports (modified louver at Phoenix Raceway), NASCAR requested I rule in the same manner as the three-person appeals panel following the Hendrick Motorsports appeal on March 29. The information I heard in the room this morning created an overwhelming and unique circumstance. In fairness to the team and sanctioning body, as NASCAR documented in its remarks, this request is fully in the interest of fairness and consistency, and I agree.”

NASCAR also released a statement following the ruling saying, “NASCAR believes that Kaulig Racing committed the violations documented in the penalty notice, that the penalties were appropriate and that thethree-person appeals panel ruled correctly when hearing the Kaulig appeal on April 5.  However, in the interest of treating all competitors fairly, NASCAR today requested that the Final Appeals Officer remove the race and playoff points from the penalty. The Kaulig and Hendrick Motorsports violations involved the same modified part found during the same race weekend (modified louver at Phoenix Raceway), and with fairness and consistency top of mind, NASCAR requested that the FAO match the final Hendrick Motorsports penalty. NASCAR believes that the updates made to the Rule Book will address similar issues in the future and keep its promise to the owners for strict penalties when single-source parts are modified. We are pleased with the swift resolution to today’s appeal, appreciate Bill Mullis’ ruling and now look forward to this weekend’s events at Talladega Superspeedway.”

With the recent rash of penalties and appeals, NASCAR has amended the rules in relation to appeals.  The Appeals Panel can no longer eliminate any portion of a penalty; only modify it.