A mistake by Toyota Racing Development will cost Denny Hamlin any chance to win the regular season title and possibly impact his chances to win the Cup championship.
NASCAR announced several penalties Thursday against Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing for an engine violation.
NASCAR docked Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing 75 points each and 10 playoff points each. Crew chief Chris Gabehart was fined $100,000.
Hamlin falls from third to sixth in the points. He now enters Saturday’s race at Daytona (7:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock), 103 points behind series leader Tyler Reddick with two races left in the regular season. The penalty also costs Hamlin nearly half of his 21 playoff points.
Toyota Racing Development President David Wilson said in a statement that the company made a mistake and explained what happened.
“As the engine builder for our partner NASCAR Cup Series teams, TRD is solely responsible for the handling and disposition of all our engines pre- and post-race,” Wilson said. “Despite procedures being in place, Denny’s race winning engine from Bristol was mistakenly returned to our Costa Mesa facility, disassembled and rebuilt instead of being torn down and inspected by NASCAR per the rulebook.
“Although we know with absolute certainty that the engine was legal and would have passed inspection, we left NASCAR in an impossible position because they were not given the opportunity to properly inspect our engine.
“We have reviewed our processes and have implemented several additional steps to ensure that this never happens again. TRD takes full responsibility for this grievous mistake, and we apologize to Denny, Chris, Coach Gibbs, the entire JGR organization, NASCAR and our fans.”
NASCAR’s penalty report cited the following violations:
Section 14.7.1.E: “All Race winning engines will be long block sealed by NASCAR and must be completely inspected by NASCAR before the engine may be disassembled by the team. If the team chooses to use the long block sealed Race winning engine again before being inspected, the engine must be used in the same vehicle number the next time it is used.”
Section 14.7.1.F: “The long block engine assembly seals of a long block sealed engine must not be altered, removed, or replaced.”
Section 14.7.1.1.B: “Unless otherwise authorized by the Series Managing Director, seals will be supplied, installed, and removed by NASCAR Officials only. Seals must not be removed without prior approval by NASCAR.”
Section 14.7.1.1.E: “If a Race winning engine is sealed and presented for Post-Race inspection at a later date with damaged, altered, or missing seals, an L2 Penalty will be assessed.”