JGR Executive Believes No. 19 Team Didn't Modify Single-Source Part
It’s early in his first season at Joe Gibbs Racing, but Chase Briscoe is already facing a major setback.
After an impressive Speedweeks at Daytona, where the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE sat on pole for the DAYTONA 500 and recorded a top-five result, the Mitchell, Indiana-native was slapped with a major penalty, which has put him nearly 100 points below the post-season bubble.
The penalty came as a result of modifying a single-source part (the spoiler base), and resulted in the loss of 100 points, 10 Playoff Points, a fine of $100,000 and a four-race suspension of crew chief James Small.
Joe Gibbs Racing says that the No. 19 team did not modify the part, and plan to make an appeal to the National Motorsports Appeals Panel (NMAP), saying in a team statement that the bolts used to attach the spoiler base to the decklid “caused the pre-drilled holes to wear due to supplied part interferences.”
That appeal will be heard on Wednesday, March 5, and the suspension of James Small has been deferred until then.
Dave Alpern, President of Joe Gibbs Racing, has since commented on the penalty and the appeal process coming up for the championship-winning organization, joining SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday to further discuss the situation.
“My best explanation is like when you buy furniture from IKEA, and you get a couple of pieces you gotta line up the holes and you gotta put the screws in,” Alpern said. “Well, when they attached the spoiler to the base, it has 21 pre-drilled holes and they don’t all line up perfectly, so we screwed the spoiler on, it passed inspection, it raced legally, it passed inspection afterward. When they took it off, some of the screw holes were offset, again because when you go to install it, they don’t line up perfectly.”
Alpern strongly believes that what happened to Joe Gibbs Racing should not be considered modifying a single-source part, a point which he and the organization’s competition team will have to communicate in their appeal.
“To me, that’s not modifying a part, like it didn’t make us go faster, we screwed something on and it met the perfect template, just some of the screw holes were offset because they didn’t line up perfectly and that’s my simple explanation of what happened.”
“They will articulate that to some degree by showing the variations in the holes, talking to other teams, and saying if you take theirs off, you’re probably going to see the same kind of thing, so that’s the best way I can explain it.”
It’s an unfortunate circumstance for Briscoe, who barring a positive outcome from the appeals process, will have a substantial hole to dig out of in order to qualify for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Not to mention, he’ll have to start that journey without his crew chief James Small calling the shots from the racetrack.
“That stinks,” Alpern said about the possibility of Small and Briscoe being separated for four weeks. “That’s not what you want, obviously, teams all have the war rooms and they can communicate and things, but there’s a reason you pair these people together and the best scenario is him sitting on the box at the racetrack.”
“I’m not sure Chase anticipated being negative in points at the beginning of the season but we’ll bounce out of it and I expect the 19 car will have a great season and we’ll get him in victory lane and come playoff time we ca make up this deficit, but it’s a huge hole, it’s a huge discouragement, and hopefully we can get a positive outcome with that.”
Last week, prior to the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Briscoe told members of the media that he wasn't really worried about the penalty, while adding that being at Joe Gibbs Racing is pretty much a must-win situation, anyways.
Briscoe will tackle the road course of Circuit of The Americas (COTA) this weekend in Austin, Texas, before his team goes to battle to attempt to have the major penalty reversed by the National Motorsports Appeal Panel on Wednesday, March 5.
Coverage of the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix will be on Sunday, March 2 on FOX, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
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Joseph Srigley covers NASCAR for TobyChristie.com, Racing America, and OnSI, and is the owner of the #SrigleyStats brand. With a higher education in the subjects of business, mathematics, and data analytics, Joseph is able to fully understand the inner workings of the sport through multiple points of perspective.