For the second time this season, NASCR has taken away a playoff victory from a driver and a team…and this one is big!

On August 22, NASCAR announced that Joe Gibbs Racing and the number eleven car driven by Denny Hamlin has violated a number of rules in the NASCAR rule book and as a result has been levied an L2 penalty.

Relating to the engine block, JGR violated Sections 14.7.1.E&F and 14.7.1.1.B&E and have been docked 75 driver and owner points, docked 10 playoff points, assessed a $100,000 fine for crew chief Chris Gabehart, and Hamlin has lost the playoff win and points for his Bristol win.  Hamlin maintains the win but will no longer have the race count toward the playoffs.  NASCAR states that the penalty assessed was the lowest they could give for an L2 level penalty.

The ruling drops Hamlin from third to sixth in the standings and eliminates him from a chance to win the regular season championship.

Section 14.7.1.E in the NASCAR rulebook states, “all race-winning engines will be long block sealed by NASCAR and must be completely inspected by NASCAR before the engine may be disassembled by the team. If the team chooses to use the long block sealed race winning engine again before being inspected, the engine must be used in the same vehicle number the next time it is used.”

Section 14.1.1.B&E states, “seals must not be removed without prior approval by NASCAR,” and “if a race winning engine is sealed and presented for post-race inspection at a later date with damaged, altered or missing seals, an L2 Penalty will be assessed. Each race-winning engine must be inspected by NASCAR once the race team determines that its life cycle is complete.  In this instance, prior to presenting the engine to NASCAR for inspection, Toyota Racing Development disassembled and rebuilt the number eleven Bristol-winning race engine.”

TRD – Toyota Racing Development reported the incident.

President of TRD USA David Wilson spoke on the incident saying, “as the engine builder for our partner NASCAR Cup Series teams, TRD is solely responsible for the handling and disposition of all our engines pre- and post-race. DespiteFo procedures being in place, Denny’s race-winning engine from Bristol was mistakenly returned to our Costa Mesa facility, disassembled and rebuilt instead of being torn down and inspected by NASCAR per the rule book. Although we know with absolute certainty that the engine was legal and would have passed inspection, we left NASCAR in an impossible position because they were not given the opportunity to properly inspect our engine. We have reviewed our processes and have implemented several additional steps to ensure that this never happens again. TRD takes full responsibility for this grievous mistake, and we apologize to Denny, Chris, Coach Gibbs, the entire JGR organization, NASCAR and our fans.”

While Hamlin is a three time race winner this season, only two of them will count toward the playoffs.

Before the penalty, Hamlin was in second place in the playoff standings with 2029 points; now he is in sixth with 2016 points.