NASCAR has issued a big penalty after the Daytona 500 to Joe Gibbs Racing.
The number 19 car driven by Chase Briscoe – who sat on the pole for the 500 – was assessed an L2 penalty for modifications to the spoiler. Briscoe’s car was one of those sent back to the NASCAR R&D center in Concord, North Carolina for further inspection and that is where the infraction was found.
The NASCAR rule book does not allow any modifications to a single-source vendor supplied part.
As a result, Briscoe and team owner Joe Gibbs has been docked 100 points and 10 playoff points, JGR has been fined $100,000, and crew chief James Small has been suspended for four races.
Joe Gibbs Racing has announced that they will be appealing the decision. The statement also gives an explanation for the spoiler saying, “the issue in question was caused in the assembly process when bolts used to attach the spoiler base to the deck lid caused the pre-drilled holes to wear due to supplied part interferences.”
Due to the penalty, Chase Briscoe goes from tenth place in the standings to 45th, minus 67 points.
In other penalties after the Daytona 500:
The Front Row Motorsports number 34 car driven by Todd Gilliland and the Rick Ware Racing number 51 driven by Cody Ware were penalized for ballast found outside the container – a safety violation. The teams and drivers were docked 10 points each.