NASCAR Issues Major L2 Penalties to Hendrick Motorsports, Team Plans To Appeal

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NASCAR

NASCAR Drops Massive L2 Penalties For Five Teams After Phoenix

Each of Hendrick Motorsports’ four NASCAR Cup Series teams and Kaulig Racing’s No. 31 team received L2 penalties on Wednesday.

The penalty, listed as an unapproved modification of single-source vendor-supplied parts, has suspended each team’s crew chief for four races and fined them $100,000. Additionally, the No. 5, No. 24, No. 48, and No. 31 teams have been docked 100 driver and team points and 10 playoff points.

The No. 9 team only loses 100 team points and 10 playoff points as Chase Elliott did not participate in Sunday’s race at Phoenix and fill-in driver Josh Berry does not compete for Cup Series points.

Officials confiscated hood louvers from each of these cars prior to Sunday’s race and after further inspection at NASCAR’s R&D Center in Concord, N.C., elected to penalize them under sections 14.5.4.2.A of NASCAR’s Rule Book, which deals with vehicle assembly, specifically within the radiator duct.

Prior to the penalties, Alex Bowman sat atop the points standings, William Byron ranked fourth, Kyle Larson was fifth, and Justin Haley was 24th, respectively. Now, each driver will surely be outside of the top 20 in the driver points standings and Haley will fall to -40 points.

Crew chiefs affected by the suspension and fine are Cliff Daniels (No. 5), Rudy Fugle (No. 24), Alan Gustafson (No. 9), Blake Harris (No. 48), and Trent Owens (No. 31).

In a statement released after the penalties were announced, Hendrick Motorsports said it would appeal:

“We are disappointed with today’s decision by NASCAR to issue penalties and have elected to appeal based on a variety of facts that include:

• Louvers provided to teams through NASCAR’s mandated single-source supplier do not match the design submitted by the manufacturer and approved by NASCAR
• Documented inconsistent and unclear communication by the sanctioning body specifically related to louvers
• Recent comparable penalties issued by NASCAR have been related to issues discovered during a post-race inspection

For the March 19 NASCAR Cup Series event at Atlanta Motor Speedway, our organization has made the strategic decision not to request deferral of personnel suspensions. Team rosters for this weekend will be updated as soon as substitute crew chiefs are determined.”

Additional Penalties:

Additional penalties following Phoenix include the No. 10 car of Aric Almirola and the No. 11 car of Denny Hamlin.

Almirola’s team has been penalized for the loss of a wheel/tire during the event and crew members Ryan Mulder and Sean Cotten have been suspended for the next two Cup Series events.

Denny Hamlin has been penalized 25 driver points and has been assessed a $50,000 fine under section 4.4 of NASCAR’s Rule Book, which deals with race manipulation, wrecking or spinning another vehicle, and actions detrimental to stock car racing.

This week, on Hamlin’s podcast of the same name “Actions Detrimental,” he admitted to running Ross Chastain up the race track on purpose to ensure that Chastain finished as poorly as he was going to. The two drivers have had many run-ins over the past few seasons, which has triggered comments from Hamlin about racing Chastain differently. On Sunday, according to Hamlin, that happened.

“I let the wheel go and said he’s coming with me,” Hamlin said on his podcast. “I’ve said for a while you have to do something to get these guys’ attention and I think that Ross doesn’t like it when I speak his name…I’m the dumbass that lost just as many spots as he did but at the time, I said well I’m going to finish like (expletive) anyway and I’m just going to make sure that he finishes (expletive) right here with me.”

After NASCAR announced it would be looking at the incident, Hamlin took to Twitter and said “It wasn’t a wreck. NASCAR throws cautions for wrecks. Rule #1 my momma told me, don’t lie.”