Hendrick Motorsports have their 100-point penalty rescinded even though the Appeals Panel agreed that HMS violated the rule.
Along with rescinding the 100 point-penalty to each of the HMS drivers and teams, the Panel also rescinded the 10-point playoff to each Hendrick driver and team.
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However, the Panel said that violated the rule by modifying the hood louvres at Phoenix. This decision did not go well with NASCAR and they said that they were disappointed with it.
“We are pleased that the National Motorsports Appeals Panel agreed that Hendrick Motorsports violated the rule book. However, we are disappointed that the entirety of the penalty was not upheld. A points penalty is a strong deterrent that is necessary to govern the garage following rule book violations, and we believe that it was an important part of the penalty in this case and moving forward. We will continue to inspect and officiate the NASCAR garage at the highest level of scrutiny to ensure a fair and level playing field for our fans and the entire garage.”
And Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports, was certainly happy to have got back the points lost.
“We are grateful to the National MotorsporPPts Appeals Panel for their time and attention. Today’s outcome reflects the facts, and we’re pleased the panel did the right thing by overturning the points penalty. It validated our concerns regarding unclear communication and other issues we raised. We look forward to focusing on the rest of our season, beginning with this weekend’s race at Richmond (Raceway).”
The Panel did keep the $100,000 fine and four-race suspension to each Hendrick crew chief though. The decision to rescind the points will have a huge impact on the NASCAR standings as Alex Bowman, who was sitting in the 16th position before will be on top now with a 16 points lead over Ross Chastain.
William Byron is now in the 3rd position, 14 points behind Chastain and five points above Kyle Busch. Kyle Larson is now in the 9th position.