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NASCAR modifies lug nut and laser inspection penalties for Chase

Those lug nuts should be fastened onto the wheel hubs when the wheels are put on the car (Getty).
Teams are now allowed to have two lug nuts missing after a race without a penalty (Getty).

With the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup beginning on Sunday, NASCAR tweaked the rules regarding lug nut installation and the consequences for teams who fail post-race laser inspection.

After Tony Stewart was fined for his statements regarding NASCAR’s lack of enforcement regarding lug nuts in April, the sanctioning body instituted a rule mandating that teams have all 20 lug nuts (five per tire) installed securely at the end of the race. If a team was found to have been missing a lug nut or two, the crew chief was suspended for the next race.

The penalty for a lug nut infraction is now more severe. But so is the barometer for the infraction. A team will have to be missing three lug nuts off the wheels of its car to now get a penalty. If a driver’s car has 17 or fewer lug nuts, he will lose 35 points and the services of his crew chief for three races. The crew chief will also be fined $65,000.

“The changes are made to assure that we have a level playing field and make sure that there’s not a carrot out there for the team to have excessive violations when it comes to lug nuts and the LIS post-race measurements,” NASCAR vice president of competition Scott Miller said to NASCAR.com.

The move takes away the potential Chase implications of a penalty for a driver’s car missing one lug nut because it came off during the course of a run or wasn’t fastened to begin with on a pit stop.

Laser inspection penalties regarding the measurements of the rear toe on a car will also result in the same consequences as a lug nut penalty if the car exceeds the allowed tolerances of the measurements on each side of the car. Per NASCAR’s site the “majority” of the post-race laser failures have been for issues with the rear of the car.

If the winning car is found to have violated the lug nut rule or receives the 35-point laser inspection penalty, the win will not carry over to the next round of the Chase. If either penalty happens to a driver and team in the final round of the Chase, their finish will not count against the other three competitors.

Multiple teams have failed the laser inspection station following races over the past month. While the penalties haven’t impacted drivers already locked into the Chase like Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson, the penalty for the inspection failure hurt Ryan Newman. His car failed inspection after Darlington and the resulting 15-point penalty meant he had to make up 22 points on Jamie McMurray during the last race of the regular season at Richmond.

Newman’s attempts to make up that gulf ended when he crashed with Tony Stewart.

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!