NASCAR
Hendrick Motorsports Gets Points Back, Daniel Suarez Fined for Pit Road Contact
The National Motorsports Appeals Panel announced Wednesday the amending of Hendrick Motorsports’ illegal louvers penalty from Phoenix Raceway. The 100-point deductions handed out are wiped away in both owner’s and driver’s standings. In addition, the 10 Playoff points lost by all four cars have been given back.
As a result, Alex Bowman is the Cup Series points leader once again over Ross Chastain. William Byron also gets back his Playoff points from his two wins, and the 24 moves back to third in standings. Larson also jumps up to ninth in points.
Hendrick Motorsports released the following statement given this news. “We are grateful to the National Motorsports Appeals Panel for their time and attention,” said Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports. “Today’s outcome reflects the facts, and we’re pleased the panel did the right thing by overturning the points penalty. It validated our concerns regarding unclear communication and other issues we raised. We look forward to focusing on the rest of our season, beginning with this weekend’s race at Richmond (Raceway).”
NASCAR also gave the following statement regarding the third-party tweaking of their penalty. “We are pleased that the National Motorsports Appeals Panel agreed that Hendrick Motorsports violated the rule book. However, we are disappointed that the entirety of the penalty was not upheld. A points penalty is a strong deterrent that is necessary to govern the garage following rule book violations, and we believe that it was an important part of the penalty in this case and moving forward. We will continue to inspect and officiate the NASCAR garage at the highest level of scrutiny to ensure a fair and level playing field for our fans and the entire garage.”
The independent three-person appeals board was comprised of: Kelly Housby, Dixon Johnston and Bill Lester.
In addition to the Hendrick news, NASCAR handed out another penalty from this past race weekend in COTA. For his post-race actions hitting cars on pit road, Daniel Suarez has been fined $50,000. Suarez’s No. 99 Chevrolet hit Alex Bowman’s car on pit road entry near a NASCAR official.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credit to Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR
