There were only two penalties issued by NASCAR after the road course race at Circuit of the Americas last weekend; but they were major penalties that involved suspensions and a loss of points.
NASCAR ruled that Austin Cindric’s hit of Ty Dillon, that sent Dillon spinning, was an intentional hit and a violation of the NASCAR rule book Member Conduct polities. As a result Cindric has been fined $50,000 and was docked 50 points. The points loss has dropped Cindric from eleventh to 35th in the point standings.
NASCAR managing director of racing communications Mike Forde spoke on an episode of “Hauler Talk” about why Cindric was not suspended as has been done in the past was that being a road course the speeds were slower in a more confined space; adding that the incident did not bring out a caution flag.
Near the end of stage two, Kyle Larson made a pit stop to short pit the end of the stage. After coming back out on the course, one of the tires on Larson’s car came off. Under the new rules regarding a tire coming off of a car on the racing course, Larson was held for a two lap penalty and jackman Brandon Johnson and front tire changer Blaine Anderson have been suspended for two races. Larson’s “over the wall” crew this weekend at Phoenix Raceway and next weekend at Homestead-Miami will have two substitute crew members.
In other penalty news, the National Motorsports Appeals Panel has ruled on the L2 penalty levied against Chase Briscoe that resulted from NASCAR ruling the number 19 Joe Gibbs Racing crew altered the spoiler.
The three member NMAP has overturned the penalty saying, “the panel believes that the elongation of some of the holes on the No. 19 Cup car spoiler base is caused by the process of attaching that specific spoiler base to the rear deck and not modification of the single source part.”
As a result of the Panel’s ruling, Briscoe and JGR will not have to pay the $100,000 fine, crew chief James Small will not have to serve a four race suspension, and most importantly the loss of 100 points and 10 playoff points have been restored. With the restoration of his points, Chase Briscoe is now 15th in the point standings with 72 points.
An exuberant Briscoe noted, “biggest points day of my career! We’re back!”
He added, “in all seriousness thank you to NASCAR for giving us the option to show our evidence and huge thank you to everyone at (Joe Gibbs Racing) who put in countless hours to put everything together.”