Denny Hamlin Drops Several Playoff Spots in Massive L2 Penalty

What’s Happening?

NASCAR is assessing Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing, and Crew Chief Chris Gabehart with monumental penalties with just two races until the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Toyota Racing Development self-reported that Hamlin’s Bristol race-winning engine was torn down and rebuilt before NASCAR could do so as part of their technical inspection.

• Denny Hamlin will be fined 75 driver and owner points and 10 Playoff Points. Like Austin Dillon’s last week, Hamlin’s win at Bristol has also been stricken from playoff eligibility. Unlike Dillon, Hamlin has two other wins at Richmond and Dover to support his playoff eligibility.
• Alongside this, Crew Chief Chris Gabehart was fined $100,000 but will not face any suspension. NASCAR is supposed to tear down and inspect race-winning engines. However, President of TRD David Wilson said, “Despite procedures being in place, Denny’s race winning engine from Bristol was mistakenly returned to our Costa Mesa facility, disassembled and rebuilt instead of being torn down and inspected by NASCAR per the rulebook.” TRD is taking the blame for this incident affecting its current winningest driver.
• This penalty drops Hamlin from third to sixth in points behind William Byron. Hamlin was in contention for the Regular Season Championship alongside Tyler Reddick and Kyle Larson. However, this now looks extremely unlikely. The win’s removal from playoff eligibility would hurt Hamlin late into the playoffs if he were to need a tiebreaker.

NASCAR said in a statement on the penalties:

“Each race-winning engine must be inspected by NASCAR once the race team determines that its life cycle is complete. In this instance, prior to presenting the engine to NASCAR for inspection, Toyota Racing Development disassembled and rebuilt the No. 11’s Bristol-winning race engine. Per the NASCAR Rule Book, this violation results in an L2 penalty to the race team and driver. Toyota Racing Development self-reported this violation.”

It is unknown if the team will appeal these penalties at this time.

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