NASCAR announced Wednesday a number of penalties stemming from the most recent Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway. Most notable is an L2-level penalty assessed to all four Hendrick Motorsports teams for unapproved parts modifications. NASCAR assessed a similar penalty to Kaulig Racing.
Following practice on Friday, NASCAR confiscated the hood louvers belonging to all four Hendrick Motorsports cars, as well as the No. 31 Kaulig Racing car, which were then brought back to the sport’s Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C. According to the sanctioning body, the teams were found to have illegally modified a single-source vendor-supplied part in violation of Sections 14.5.4.2.A of the NASCAR rulebook, which deal with how the radiator duct is assembled.
As a result, the following penalties were handed out:
All four Hendrick Motorsports teams and the No. 31 Kaulig Racing team have been penalized with the loss of 100 owner points and 10 playoff points
Crew chiefs Cliff Daniels, Alan Gustafson, Rudy Fugle, Trent Owens and Blake Harris have all been fined $100,000 and suspended for the next four Cup Series races
Drivers Kyle Larson, William Byron, Justin Haley and Alex Bowman have all been penalized 100 driver points and 10 playoff points
According to Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports, the $400,000 combined fine to Hendrick Motorsports makes it the largest one ever assessed to a single organization in the history of NASCAR (though the sanctioning body has issued larger individual fines to teams in the past).
Hendrick driver Chase Elliott, who is recovering from a leg injury suffered in a snowboarding accident, was not subject to penalty, nor was substitute driver Josh Berry, who does not earn Cup Series points.
Hendrick Motorsports cars have won the past two Cup Series races with William Byron, but the confiscation of their hood louvers marked a major concern by the end of last weekend. NASCAR Hall of Famer and Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon admitted as much in a post-race press conference.
“I can tell you it was weighing on all of our minds coming into today. Certainly will continue,” Gordon said. “We had some conversation, will continue to have conversations, with NASCAR. Every situation is sort of unique, but this is a more unique one than I’ve seen in a while where there’s been a lot of communication back and forth on this particular part, especially for this racetrack because they did a parity test in the wind tunnel.
“I think it really opened up the door for some miscommunication. I don’t want to go any further than that. We’ll continue to just share all the facts and be transparent with NASCAR as we have been so far.”
Beyond NASCAR’s penalties for technical infractions, the sanctioning body also penalized driver Denny Hamlin after he admitted on his podcast that he intentionally put Ross Chastain in the wall on the final lap while racing for position.
Hamlin claimed that once his car pushed up the track in Turn 1 and he realized he was going to lose position, he decided to let go of the wheel and pin Chastain — who had been running to his outside — into the wall to take him back through the field with him. As a result, Hamlin has been penalized 25 driver points and fined $50,000 for violating Sections 4.4 of the NASCAR Member Code of Conduct, which includes “wrecking or spinning another vehicle, whether or not that vehicle is removed from competition as a result.”
Hamlin and Chastain have had a number of on-track run-ins over the past year, including incidents at Gateway, Atlanta and Pocono — and of course the Hail Melon at Martinsville where Chastain used a wall ride to beat Hamlin for the final spot in the Championship 4.
The two also came together during the Busch Light Clash at the L.A. Coliseum in February, with Chastain spinning Hamlin.
Hamlin claimed that Phoenix was not retaliation for any past incident, and he admitted that he cost himself and his team positions in doing it anyway because his car ended up getting pinned against Chastain’s. The two spoke on pit road after the race, with Hamlin recounting that he wanted Chastain to take accountability for past incidents and that he did not want to have any further issues racing with him.
“He came up to me and he says ‘I guess I deserved it?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I think so,'” Hamlin said. “I’m not gonna sit here on this podcast and ever lie to you guys and say ‘Well, this is an accident’ when it’s not. It wasn’t an accident, I meant to put him in the fence, but I didn’t mean to screw my team in the process.
“… We talked and I think that we are in a better place where I think we’re willing to put the past behind us. And I think that we’re gonna judge each other from this point forward, and I think that’s the fairest way to do it.”
The final team included in NASCAR’s swath of penalties was the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing team, which was assessed a safety violation after an improperly installed wheel fell off of Aric Almirola’s car at Phoenix. Crew members Ryan Mulder and Sean Cotten have been suspended for the next two races.