Chase Briscoe won his appeal Wednesday to a 100-point penalty NASCAR issued after the Daytona 500 for holes in his spoiler base being bigger than when supplied to the team.
A three-member appeals panel overturned the penalty, which had included a four-race suspension to crew chief James Small and a fine of $100,000 to Joe Gibbs Racing.
“The panel believes that the elongation of some of the holes on the No. 19 Cup car spoiler base is caused by the process of attaching that specific spoiler base to the rear deck and not modification of the single source part,” the panel said in a statement.
The points reversal vaults Briscoe from last in the standings to a tie for 14th in the standings with 72 points.
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Hearing the appeal were longtime motorsports marketing executive Dixon Johnston, former Speed Channel president Hunter Nickell and former South Boston Speedway general manager Cathy Rice.
NASCAR does not have the option to try to reverse the decision on final appeal — an option available to teams/drivers if they lose an initial appeal.
After bringing Briscoe’s pole-winning Daytona 500 car back to its research and development center following the race, NASCAR found that the holes in the spoiler base used to mount it to the car were bigger than when the piece was supplied.
Whether it had any impact on performance, NASCAR tends to take a hard line if single-sourced parts are altered and therefore issued a big fine and points penalty to Briscoe and his team.
JGR indicated that, when bolting in the spoiler base and aligning it with where the holes needed to be on the deck lid using the required bolts, the holes increased in size.
“The issue in question was caused in the assembly process when bolts used to attach the spoiler base to the deck lid caused the pre-drilled holes to wear due to supplied part interferences,” the team said in a statement following the penalty.
It was a big day in penalty news in NASCAR, which docked Austin Cindric 50 points and fined him $50,000 for retaliating against Ty Dillon with a right rear hook Sunday at Circuit of the Americas but stopped short of suspending him for the maneuver.
A NASCAR spokesman indicated that NASCAR didn’t suspend Cindric because of the following:
— The slower pace where the incident occurred on the road course (versus speeds at a 1.5-mile or larger track).
— Dillon’s car had no significant impact or damage and he was able to continue racing (The Kaulig Racing team indicates that Dillon’s car suffered significant damage).
— It did not result in a caution.
— A one-race suspension did not feel appropriate and that the punishment — which now would include the driver losing all playoff points earned during the regular season — would have been too severe for what occurred.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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