(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)
By Aaron Bearden
What Happened?
NASCAR gave no mercy to a trio of different organizations, heavily penalizing both Hendrick Motorsports and Kaulig Racing Wednesday for the improper modification of a part supplied by a single-sourced vendor, while also issuing Denny Hamlin a penalty for his intentional wrecking of Ross Chastain.
These penalties all stem from the Mar. 10-12 race weekend at Phoenix Raceway. NASCAR took the hood louvers from all four Hendrick Motorsports teams, along with the No. 31 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet driven by Justin Haley, after Friday’s 50-minute practice session. They were sent to NASCAR’s research and development center in Concord, N.C., where an examination confirmed that the louvers had been altered.
The end result was the following slate of penalties:
– All four Hendrick Motorsports entries, the Nos. 5, 9, 24 and 48, have had 100 owners points deducted, along with matching driver point penalties for Kyle Larson, William Byron and Alex Bowman. The teams and relevant drivers will additionally be docked 10 playoff points in each round of the playoffs that they qualify for.
– Chase Elliott and fill-in driver Josh Berry weren’t penalized, because Elliott was out when the infraction was discovered and Berry doesn’t earn points in the Cup Series.
– The crew chiefs for each team have been fined $100,000 and suspended for four races. They are Cliff Daniels (Larson), Rudy Fugle (Byron), Blake Harris (Bowman) and Alan Gustafson (No. 9)
– Haley’s No. 31 Kaulig Racing team and crew chief Trent Owens have been given matching penalties. The sister No. 16 of AJ Allmendinger wasn’t part of this process and hasn’t been penalized.
Hendrick Motorsports is appealing the decision, but hasn’t asked for a deferral of the suspensions, which will begin this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The team statement said:
“On Friday at Phoenix Raceway, NASCAR identified louvers on our race cars during a voluntary inspection 35 minutes after the opening of the garage and prior to on-track activity. NASCAR took possession of the parts approximately four hours later with no prior communication. The situation had no bearing on Saturday’s qualifying session or Sunday’s race.
“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.”
Byron will be able to keep his two victories, meaning the North Carolinian is locked into the 2023 playoffs. The other three Hendrick drivers and Haley will all drop deep in the standings and likely need a win to advance to the postseason.
Bowman will be tied with Ryan Preece for 23rd, 54 points, 25 points out of the current playoff field. Byron will fade to 30th with 44 points, with Larson (-42) in 33rd with 37 points. Haley will take the biggest blow in the group, sitting last in the standings with -40 points. Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 9 Chevrolet will also fall below zero points with a total of -16 points after its penalty.
Similar penalties were levied to the teams of Brad Keselowski (RFK Racing), Michael McDowell (Front Row Motorsports) and Kevin Harvick (Stewart-Haas Racing) in 2022. NASCAR increased the severity of penalties last year with the arrival of the Next Gen car, which utilizes multiple single-sourced parts.
“It was obvious to us that these parts had been modified in an area that wasn’t approved,” Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on “The Morning Drive.”
“This is a consistent penalty with what we went through last year.”
Hamlin is also being penalized for a separate incident. The three-time Daytona 500 winner was penalized 25 driver points and fined $50,000 for admitting that he intentionally crashed Chastain in overtime of Sunday’s race.
The penalty drops Hamlin to 13th in the standings with 100 points. No owner’s points were penalized.
Hamlin admitted to the incident on his new podcast, “Actions Detrimental.”
“My crew chief told me there were 18 cars on the lead lap,” Hamlin said on the podcast. “At that point, I said, ‘Alright, I’m probably running sixth or seventh, I’m about to get passed by everyone behind me on fresh tires. I’m about to finish in the mid-teens. I said, ‘(Chastain,) you’re coming with me buddy.’ ”
“I saw that we were the only people up top, so I said I’m going to send him into the fence and door him,” he later added. “My dumb *** got caught up in it because when I got pinned, he was between me and the wall, so I got all screwed up and I lost a bunch of positions for my team, which was stupid.
“At the time, I’m going to finish in the mid-teens anyway, because my car is just plowing here. I’m about to get ate up by all these new tires. I just was like if I’m going to give this guy a hard time, it’s just going to be then.
“So he bounced off the wall. My ideal situation was I was just going to knock him in the fence a little bit and keep going.”
NASCAR previously penalized Byron and Bubba Wallace for intentional accidents caused during last year’s playoffs. Wallace was suspended a race given the severity of his accident. Sawyer admitted that Hamlin’s comments were on the sanctioning body’s radar Tuesday.
Hamlin and Chastain have caught each other’s ire multiple times in the past year. Chastain caused contact that wrecked Hamlin at World Wide Technology Raceway and Atlanta Motor Speedway last year before spinning Hamlin at the Busch Light Clash in February. Hamlin intentionally impeded Chastain’s progress at WWTR and led Chastain into the wall by cutting him off at Pocono Raceway last year.
In his podcast, Hamlin stated that the pair had talked after Phoenix.
“We talked and I think we’re in a better place where I think we’re willing to put the past behind and I think that we’re going to judge each other from this point forward,” he said. “I think that’s the fairest way to do it.”
Analysis
Whoo boy… Where do we begin?
I suppose you have to start with Hendrick Motorsports, which has been issued the single largest fine in the history of NASCAR. The $400,000 it owes topples the $300,000 Michael Waltrip Racing was docked for Clint Bowyer’s intentional spin at Richmond Raceway in 2013.
But the real pain point for Hendrick is the lost points.
With Elliott out injured for at least another month, Hendrick was already left with one of its star drivers needing to fight from behind. Now the entire organization has been set back significantly. Three of its drivers are now well outside of the playoff grid on points. Bowman and Larson could conceivably still point their way into the postseason, but given how the past couple years have gone in terms of unique winners, that’s far from a guarantee.
The best bet for all three un-clinched drivers to crack the playoff field will be with a win. That’s a realistic proposition, too, given the talent level of the trio and how strong their cars have been running. But it’s far from a sure thing. Hendrick is likely to make the playoffs with each entry, but must now consider the possibility that one or more of its teams could miss the field of 16 this fall.
That’s still not the biggest concern, though. The real question is this: Even if each driver makes the playoff field, can the Hendrick quartet run well enough to contend for a championship?
If we were to ask this solely based on pace, the answer would likely be a yes. But when the playoffs arrive Hendrick will enter with a significant disadvantage on playoff points. Each of its entrants (save for Elliott) have been docked 10 playoff points. Worse yet, the 100-point penalties mean they’re unlikely to crack the top-10 in points and partake in the bonus points for their regular season finishes.
That could translate to a net loss of as many as 25 playoff points for someone like Bowman, who was leading the standings before this penalty was issued. In a playoff format where a handful of points can be the difference between a Championship 4 berth and an early exit, that’s a major loss that could drastically impact Hendrick Motorsports’ year.
At Kaulig Racing the situation is even direr. Haley left Phoenix 24th in points, 30 points outside of the current playoff field. Now he needs to make up 40 points just to get back into positive point territory.
If his No. 31 team can’t find a way to victory, this will likely be a lost sophomore season for Haley – a popular dark horse playoff pick heading into the year after some promising runs during last year’s playoffs. The veteran Allmendinger, currently 21st in points, will have to pick up the slack if Kaulig hopes to have a playoff chance on points.
Actions Detrimental
In Hamlin’s case, his podcast title’s been proven accurate early.
There’s long been talk of drivers self-policing at the Cup level, but intentional retaliation resulting in a crash seems to be increasingly penalized in the modern era. Accidents that happen while battling for the win seem to be fair game, but payback in the pack is often met with repercussions.
Whether it’s fair or not, the only way to dodge a penalty for an intentional crash in retaliation is to lie about it. That doesn’t always work out, but plausible deniability gives drivers a chance to avoid lost points for disputes settled on track.
The question for Hamlin in particular is how he responds. His podcast has been a joy for those willing to give it a try, offering unique perspective from a team co-owner and veteran driver in the Cup Series. But is he willing to risk additional issues down the line for comments he makes during the show?
Selfishly, I hope the answer’s yes. But it would be understandable if Hamlin dialed down risky commentary, or at least didn’t outright admit to causing on-track accidents, in the future.
