Cole Custer Hit With L1 Penalty over Michigan Car

What’s Happening?

NASCAR announced that the 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Xfinity Series team driven by Cole Custer has received an L1-level penalty for a rules infraction, with the splitter found before qualifying at Michigan. The penalty is the loss of 20 driver and owner points, along with five Playoff points.

You Need to Know:

• The penalty does not change his Playoff position, but it does drop him from 86 to 106 points behind the points leaders John Hunter Nemechek and Austin Hill. Custer still is in fourth in the points standings, but he is currently third in the Playoff standings.
• This is the first major Xfinity Series penalty since Sheldon Creed was penalized for intentionally wrecking Sammy Smith. He was docked 25 points for that, and he now sits in 12th place in the Playoff standings, only 18 points above the cut line.
• NASCAR in general has had a trend with penalties this season, but the Xfinity Series has been relatively clean. Fans gave their own opinions on the penalty on social media, with some noting how rare it is to see a penalty like this in the Xfinity Series.

In the Stands

Cheating in Xfinity is definitely not common.

A difficult year for SHR continues as Marcus Newling puts it.

Quite random indeed @fakeSuper1.

ejr6309 notes that this takes away a full win essentially in terms of Playoff points from Custer.

Probably no more perfect gif than this.

A fair, and understandable point from Megan Neuhaus. What infractions necessitate something like this rather than just going through inspection one more time?

Paradise Turnpike with the perfect meme to represent how SHR and NASCAR have dealt with each other this season so far.

From the Pressbox

Bob Pockrass says that SHR will not appeal the penalty, and he offers some context for why NASCAR made the decision they did.

At the end of the day, this is not the worst penalty in the world for Cole Custer. However, it does hurt, and it could loom large come Playoff time.