(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)
By Aaron Bearden
What Happened?
Hendrick Motorsports caught a big break.
The National Motorsports Appeals Panel rescinded the 100-point penalties addressed to each active full-time driver and team Wednesday, along with the 10-point playoff point deductions planned should the quartet of teams make the postseason.
The Hendrick teams didn’t come away totally clean. The Appeals Panel found that they violated the rulebook by modifying hood louvers on the cars of Alex Bowman, William Byron, Kyle Larson and Josh Berry at Phoenix Raceway. NASCAR confiscated the louvers after practice on Friday of the race weekend.
As a result, the $100,000 fines and four-race suspension of crew chiefs Alan Gustafson, Blake Harris, Cliff Daniels and Rudy Fugle were maintained. Each crew chief has sat out two races to date and should be good to return at Martinsville Speedway on April 14-16.
But the biggest, season-altering penalties to each team have been removed. Bowman now leads the point standings, with Byron third and Larson ninth. Chase Elliott remains outside of the top-30 as he recovers from a snowboarding injury, but his No. 9 car’s made a significant leap forward in the owner’s standings.
Panelists included former Craftsman Truck Series driver Bill Lester, ex-brand manager of Proctor & Gamble Dixon Johnston and haul tractor supplier Kelly Housby. No reason was given for the decision.
“We are grateful to the National Motorsports Appeals Panel for their time and attention,” Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick said in an organization statement. “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 didn’t mask its displeasure with the ruling.
A series statement read: “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.”
Analysis
NASCAR is right to be upset about Wednesday’s ruling, because it calls much about the sanctioning body’s authority and the sanctity of the Next Gen car into question.
On paper, NASCAR did everything right here. It found that Hendrick had violated the rules – a decision the Appeals Panel agreed with – and issued a penalty that seemed appropriate within the realms of the rulebook. Was the collective decision harsh? Yes. But it was important to come down hard given that the modified parts in question are from a single-source supplier.
But with the points penalties removed, this is more akin to a slap on the wrist than a major deterrent. The collective $400,000 fine is still significant and the crew chief suspensions aren’t nothing, but losing points and playoff points are easily the biggest repercussions for teams outside of driver suspensions. Those lost points were set to play a sizeable role in the organization’s season, impacting both its ability to put all four cars in the playoffs and the subsequent odds of making a postseason run given the lost playoff points.
As for Hendrick Motorsports, the company has reason to smile. This was a major victory for them and the company’s second-straight appeal win after Byron’s rescinded penalties in last year’s playoff. They don’t get off completely scot free here, but the company would easily take the monetary and suspension impacts over the lost points.
Bowman is now the points leader and due for essentially a 25-point swing in playoff points if he can maintain that spot through the end of the regular season. Byron is third in points and gets the bonus points for his two wins back. Larson is now back in the top-10 with a clean slate. Elliott will still have work to do when he returns, but that’s now the only Hendrick team set back at this stage in the season.
The big question is what this decision will mean for the rest of the field. Keen observers will be watching Kaulig Racing’s appeal for a similar infraction to see if this appeal can be won multiple times or if Hendrick pulled off some appeal magic.
If the first happens then other organizations could be incentivized to consider making similar modifications and claiming the parts were faulty and needed changes if they’re caught. Monetary repercussions aren’t fun and crew chief suspensions can hurt, but nearly any team capable of winning would have to consider those tradeoffs worthwhile for speed, wins and playoff berths if points aren’t on the table for removal. It’s a calculated risk that could prove more worthwhile as the playoffs near and desperation rises.
Should the latter occur, the case for rule-breaking across the board might be limited. But concerns could arise over whether Hendrick is given some level of preferential treatment as the sport’s defining power team, particularly after it also won a questionable appeal decision last fall.
Either way, NASCAR loses. This was a tough decision for the sanctioning body that threatens to undermine its efforts to enforce proper usage of parts on the Next Gen car. If teams begin to feel that they can find creative ways to modify single supplier parts, the model of the Next Gen era could be significantly damaged.
