NASCAR Hands L1-Level Penalties to Three NASCAR Xfinity Teams After Daytona
NASCAR Cup Series drivers and teams were able to breathe a sigh of relief on Wednesday, as there were no penalties issued by NASCAR in relation to Saturday night's Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, which means there will be no changes to the championship standings heading into Sunday night's final event of the regular season.
Unfortunately, teams in the NASCAR Xfinity Series didn't make it through the weekend's penalty report unscathed. In the weekly NASCAR penalty report, three NASCAR Xfinity Series teams were handed L1-level penalties by the sanctioning body stemming from violations of section 14.4.A and 14.4.11.C&D of the NASCAR Xfinity Series rule book, pertaining to the rear bumper cover on the race cars.
The infractions were discovered in NASCAR Xfinity Series pre-race inspection prior to Friday's Wawa 250 race at Daytona.
As a result of the penalties, all three teams will be docked 20 championship owner points, all three drivers will be docked 20 championship driver points, they will be docked five Playoff Points in the driver and owner standings and the crew chief of all three teams have been fined $25,000.
Who Were the Drivers and Teams Affected by Wednesday's Penalties?
The teams, drivers, and crew chiefs who were penalized on Wednesday included:
- No. 27 Jordan Anderson Racing, driver Jeb Burton, and crew chief Shane Whitbeck
- No. 28 RSS Racing, driver Kyle Sieg, and crew chief Joe Williams
- No. 45 Alpha Prime Racing, driver Caesar Bacarella, and crew chief Kase Kallenbach
As a result of the penalties, Burton, the only full-time driver among the three teams affected, will drop from 19th in the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship standings to 20th. Burton now finds himself 261 points behind the NASCAR Xfinity Playoff cutline with four races remaining until the end of the regular season.
Of the three drivers, Sieg finished the best Friday night at Daytona International Speedway as he ended the event in the 15th position. Burton finished the race 17th, while Bacarella was involved in a multicar crash and finished the race in the 29th spot.
What were the teams specifically penalized for?
Sections 14.4.11 C & D of the NASCAR Xfinity Series rule book specifically refer to the Superspeedway extension to the rear bumper cover, which is a required part from Five Star, a NASCAR vendor, in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at superspeedway events. The Superspeedway cover extension, which is a body piece that bolts to the rear bumper cover to create an additional lip of bumper, that extends past the typical bumper cover, must conform to the CAD drawing of the part in the NASCAR Xfinity Series rule book.
The extension can be seen in a photo of Leland Honeyman's No. 42 Young's Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro from this past weekend's race. The extension is the additional white lip, which extends past the black Chevrolet Camaro rear bumper branding decals at the bottom of the rear bumper cover.
TOBY CHRISTIE