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NASCAR not penalizing Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr. for inspection failures
A lack of foresight into how its own penalty system works in the structure of the Chase for the Sprint Cup means NASCAR won’t be penalizing Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr. for post-race laser inspection failures at Chicago.
Truex won the race while Johnson finished 12th. NASCAR said the inspection failures regarding the rear measurements of the cars were at the level of a 10-point penalty, meaning Johnson would have 10 points deducted from his Chicago total in his bid to accumulate enough points over the three races in the Chase’s first round to be one of 12 drivers advancing to the second round.
Truex’s point total from the race would be deducted by 10 as well … but his points from the race don’t matter. His win means Truex is guaranteed to make the second round of the Chase even if he finishes last in the next two races of the first round. Drivers who win in one of the four-round Chase’s first three rounds automatically advance to the next round.
Four drivers are eliminated after the first three three-race rounds while the highest-finishing remaining driver in the final race of the 10-race playoffs wins the title.
NASCAR saw the dichotomy of the two drivers’ situations and said Wednesday it wouldn’t be penalizing either.
“We recognized that if we applied these penalties as we listed them out for the event, those penalties would not have the same impact on the competitors based on the Chase format and the increased emphasis on win bonuses,” NASCAR executive vice president Steve O’Donnell said.
While the sanctioning body should be commended for doing the right thing, it’s curious that it didn’t see this scenario occurring within the framework of the penalty system. Points penalties are meaningless if wins aren’t taken away and it’s NASCAR’s job to ensure that the penalty system fits properly into its own postseason structure.
“As you look back and see a car advance to the following round with a victory and a points penalty attached to it — this one’s on us,” NASCAR vice president of competition Scott Miller said. “We missed that. And that is something that’s not fair, it’s hard to understand. So we’re doing our best to rectify that.”
NASCAR could have easily seen this situation coming before the Chase began. In the weeks leading up to the Chase, three cars of drivers already guaranteed into the Chase failed laser inspection. They were all assessed 10-point penalties that did not affect their eligibility for the Chase.
The minor infractions that the cars of Johnson and Truex committed at Chicago will no longer be considered penalties either. Before the Chicago race, NASCAR said severe laser inspection penalties — more severe than any laser inspection penalty handed out in 2016 — would merit a 35-point penalty and the loss of the use of a win to advance to the next round.
The 35-point penalty is now the only penalty that exists. Teams will no longer be penalized for breaching the tolerances the two cars did at Chicago.
“This was an area we felt, very similar to engines and other aspects where there are higher-level penalties, we believe that at a [10-point level] penalty where we’re assessing them, it didn’t merit that level [of a 35-point penalty],” O’Donnell said. “… But with discussing with everyone, that [35-point] level, everyone had already agreed if you were at that level that deserved to be encumbered or deserved to be penalized heavily 2-40 in points, so that’s why we landed there, to keep it intact.”
NASCAR said it will also laser-inspect all Chase cars immediately after races for the remainder of the season. O’Donnell said the sanctioning body laser-inspected seven cars following Sunday’s race.
The general manager of Truex’s team said the team believed the car failed inspection because of damage from contact during the race.
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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!
