On May 27 The National Motorsports Appeals Panel met and ruled on Ryan Preece’s appeal for a penalty when he “tangled” with Ty Gibbs during the race at Texas Motor Speedway. The panel upheld the penalty for rough driving.
Preece’s actions to not let up caused Ty Gibbs to crash. After the race Preece noted that he and Gibbs have had issues before and he was “not going to cut him a break.”
Under the member conduct guidelines in the NASCAR rule book, NASCAR has fined Preece $50,000 and docked him 25 drivers points.
The panel ruled, “although not a unanimous decision, NASCAR and RFK Racing presented competing interpretations of common data. Neither side clearly proved their point, but Mr. Preece’s comments showed that he chose to not cut his competitor any breaks.”
RFK responded via social media saying, “RFK Racing is extremely disappointed in today’s ruling by the National Motorsports Appeals Panel. We stand by Ryan Preece and believe our argument was fair, sound and without question.”
They added, “we appreciate the forum provided by NASCAR to both provide detailed evidence and defend our stance through thoughtful data and digital evidence.”
Preece and RFK Racing have one final chance at an appeal.
In other penalty news…
After losing a tire on the track during the Coca-Cola 600, the number 78 car driven by Katherine Legge has been issued two suspensions. Ian Schulz and Deiontae Jones have been suspended for the next two Cup Series point races.
In the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, the number nine JR Motorsports car driven by Ross Chastain was found to have violated Sections 8.8.10.4a & 10.5.2.5g of the NASCAR Rule Book – lug nuts. As a result, crew member Michael Roberts has been suspended for one race and the team has been fined $5,000.