NASCAR faced a major perception issue with its previous three-tiered penalty scale, where it appeared there was an incentive to cheat – as long as a driver won.
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More importantly, Truex’s win guarantees him a spot in the Chase quarterfinal, giving him a load off his shoulders for the upcoming two races.
That’s because a win in the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff means an automatic berth in the next round – making a points penalty irrelevant.
The No. 78 team expected a P2 penalty to be announced Wednesday from NASCAR for failing the Laser Inspection Station (LIS), but the governing body decided against point deductions to Truex and Jimmie Johnson’s team, which also failed an inspection to the No. 48 auto. Johnson, however, would have been significantly impacted by the loss of 10 points.
“This one is on us”, NASCAR vice president of competition Scott Miller said.
“We recognized those penalties would not have the same impact on competitors in Chase format”, O’Donnell said. “If we have a field of 16, all cars will go through post-race LIS and go down to 12, eight and four”. “Going forward that will be part of our post-race inspection as well”.
“I feel like everybody’s close to the same box when it comes to that [postrace measurement]”, said Joe Gibbs Racing driver Matt Kenseth earlier in the day before the new structure was announced.
“The right rear of our vehicle was well within the tolerance margin, which showed that we were trying to be conservative”.
O’Donnell also announced that every Chase vehicle would go through the postrace measurement inspection station.
O’Donnell said a major penalty will remain for LIS violations that are significantly out of tolerance.
NASCAR will find out if that penalty is enough of a deterrent.
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The Penske Racing star had a steady performance in this opening race of the Chase for the Cup.
