NASCAR has penalized the teams of Alex Bowman and William Byron for violations found with their cars after Sunday’s race at Richmond Raceway.
Both cars were taken to the NASCAR R&D Center for further evaluation after the Richmond race.
NASCAR issued the following penalties Thursday:
- Penalized Alex Bowman and William Byron 60 points each and five playoff points each
- Suspended crew chiefs Brian Campe and Greg Ives two races each and fined both $75,000
The suspensions for both Campe and Ives, both interim crew chiefs filling in for crew chiefs previously suspended, will begin April 13. Each of Hendrick’s crew chiefs will be done with their suspension from the Phoenix infraction by then.
The point penalty drops Bowman from first in the standings to seventh. Byron drops from fourth to 14th.
NASCAR cited both Hendrick cars for violating the following sections:
Section 14.1.D: Except in cases explicitly permitted in the NASCAR Rules, installation of additional components, repairs, deletions, and/or modifications to Next Gen Single Source Vendor-supplied parts and/or assemblies will not be permitted.
Section 14.1.2.B: All parts and assemblies must comply with the NASCAR Engineering Change Log.
Section 14.5.6.B: The greenhouse may be modified to accommodate a windshield wiper motor where required; these modifications will be permitted for all racetracks. The greenhouse modification must conform to the following drawing:
Hendrick Motorsports issued a statement Thursday:
“We are reviewing the penalties issued today by NASCAR and will determine next steps following Sunday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway.”
This is the second time in the last month that multiple Hendrick cars have been penalized for violations.
NASCAR took the hood louvers from each of the four Hendrick Motorsports cars after practice March 10 at Phoenix. NASCAR penalized each of those teams March 15. Those penalties were:
- Docked Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson and William Byron 100 points and also penalized them 10 playoff points each.
- Suspended crew chiefs Cliff Daniels, Alan Gustafson, Rudy Fugle and Blake Harris four races each. NASCAR also fined each $100,000.
- NASCAR penalized each of the four Hendrick team 100 owner points and 10 playoff points.
Hendrick Motorsports appealed. On March 29, the National Motorsports Appeals Panel rescinded the point penalties to each of the drivers and teams while keeping the suspensions and fines for the crew chiefs.
UPDATED POINTS WITH PENALTIES TO BOWMAN, BYRON
- Ross Chastain ..... 259 points
- Christopher Bell .. 229
- Kevin Harvick ..... 227
- Kyle Larson ........ 222
- Joey Logano ....... 222
- Kyle Busch ........ 215
- Alex Bowman ...... 203
- Martin Truex Jr. ... 198
- Brad Keselowski . 196
- Ryan Blaney ........ 188
- Denny Hamlin ...... 188
- Tyler Reddick ...... 187
- Austin Cindric ..... 175
- William Byron ........168
- Chris Buescher ... 165
