RFK Racing Challenging NASCAR’s Disqualification

What’s Happening?

RFK Racing announced today that it will appeal NASCAR’s May 15 L1 penalty for their No. 17 team. This penalty, which violated Rule 14.5.4 G, suspended RFK Racing No. 17 Crew Chief Scott Graves and cost the team points and money.

• Essentially, NASCAR alleges that RFK Racing made an unapproved modification to the front bumper cover of the No. 17. For this alleged action, on May 15, NASCAR fined RFK Racing $75,000; the team was penalized 60 owner and driver points, and five owner and driver playoff points.
• RFK announced shortly after this penalty was assessed that they were considering appealing to the National Motorsports Appeals Panel. The team announced their decision to appeal today via a post on X, stating, “We respect NASCAR’s commitment to fair competition and appreciate the opportunity to engage in the appeals process.”
• Due to the latency of this penalty and the subsequent appeal, we have already seen ripples of this penalty at the track. This past weekend at the non-points NASCAR All-Star Race, Doug Randolph filled in for Scott Graves on the pit box. NASCAR suspended Graves for two races, with RFK stating on May 15 that he would “begin serving his suspension immediately.”
• While this appeal to the NMAP could overturn the massive penalty, which saw Buescher fall from 12th to 24th in points, it could, at the very least, alleviate some of the damage. This is the second penalty RFK has seen since Easter break, with No. 60 driver Ryan Preece disqualified after post-race inspection at Talladega. RFK did not appeal Preece’s disqualification.

What do you think about this? Let us know your opinion on Discord or X. Don’t forget that you can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.