Hendrick Motorsports issued historic penalty by NASCAR

Hendrick Motorsports, already with 2 wins and the point lead going into this week have been hit with the largest penalty in all of NASCAR history. This penalty essentially rules out Bowman, Byron, and Larson from winning the Regular Season Championship.

Hendrick Motorsports did announce on Tuesday that the team will appeal the multiple different penalties. The reason that Hendrick was penalized is because of modifications to hood louvers discovered on all four Hendrick (5, 9, 24, 88) cars last weekend at Phoenix Raceway. William Byron did win the race, and remains the winner as the team did not use the louvers in the race or qualifying which Kyle Larson won.

The penalties that NASCAR dished out are listed below.

• 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 crew chief $100,000.

• Penalized each Hendrick team including the #9, 100 owner points and 10 playoff points.

Hendrick Motorsports came out with a statement saying: “We are disappointed with today’s decision by NASCAR to issue penalties and have elected to appeal based on a variety of facts that include:

• Louvers provided to teams through NASCAR’s mandated single-source supplier do not match the design submitted by the manufacturer and approved by NASCAR

• Documented inconsistent and unclear communication by the sanctioning body specifically related to louvers

• Recent comparable penalties issued by NASCAR have been related to issues discovered during a post-race inspection.”

Hendrick Motorsports stated that NASCAR identified louvers on the four team cars during a voluntary inspection 35 minutes after the opening of the garage on Friday at Phoenix. Hendrick Motorsports stated that “NASCAR took possession of the parts approximately four hours later with no prior communication. The situation had no bearing on Saturday’s qualifying session or Sunday’s race.”

Hendrick Motorsports will not appeal the crew chief suspensions for Atlanta as that track does not require practice and is now a superspeedway of sorts.

The big question here is, Is the penalty deserved? The answer would have to be yes as this is a rule NASCAR had previously mentioned they will come down on if violated. Teams cannot modify any of the 30+ one source parts on the NEXT GEN cars and that is what Hendrick did. The penalty is so much more then just $400,000, the points being taking away are quite harsh. This is what teams asked for though, for NASCAR to police these rules and not allow teams to modify parts that all teams get from the same manufacturer.

Now, another question yet to be answered is, Why is Hendrick claiming the parts weren't the same that NASCAR ordered to be made? If this is the case, it will be something to keep an eye on and could even get Hendrick out of this big penalty is some way. If the part was not upto standard, the NASCAR Appeal Commettee could pardon Hendrick from at least some of this penalty. That verdict remains to be seen but for now, Hendrick will have to live with this massive punishment.

The next NASCAR race will take place in Atlanta, as the west coast swing has come to an end.

ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY - AMBETTER HEALTH 400

SUNDAY, MARCH 19, 2023 | 3:00 PM ET on FOX