Yahoo Autos Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Take Major Points Penalty for Engine Inspection Violation
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Denny Hamlin's 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship hopes just took a serious hit.
The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racig Team and Hamlin were hit on Thursday with an L2-level penalty for a violation of NASCAR’s engine inspection requirements. The penalties include the loss of 75 driver and owner points, and the loss of 10 playoff points. Crew chief Chris Gabehart has also been fined $100,000.
The team's win—one of three this season for Hamlin—from the Bristol race will no longer count toward Playoff eligibility.
Prior to the Thursday's penalty announcement, Hamlin was in third in the NASCAR standings, 28 points behind points leader Tyler Reddick. Now, he drops to sixth 103 points behind Reddick. And instead of having 21 playoff points that he could carry through the playoffs, he only has 11.
The loss of the Playoff points drops Hamlin from the provisional second seed in the Playoffs to sixth. There are two races left—Daytona and Darlington—for Hamlin and the field to score points ahead of the start of the Playoffs.
NASCAR posted the infraction news to its website on Thursday.
Sections 14.7.1.E of the NASCAR rule book that states all race-winning engines “will be long block sealed by NASCAR and must be completely inspected by NASCAR before the engine may be disassembled by the team. If the team chooses to use the long block sealed race winning engine again before being inspected, the engine must be used in the same vehicle number the next time it is used.” Section 14.7.1.F states the long block engine assembly seals of a long block sealed engine must not be altered, removed or replaced.
Additionally, the team violated 14.7.1.1.B&E, which respectively states, “seals must not be removed without prior approval by NASCAR,” and “if a race winning engine is sealed and presented for post-race inspection at a later date with damaged, altered or missing seals, an L2 Penalty will be assessed.”
“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.”
TRD president David Wilson said the manufacturer is taking full responsibility for the what Wilson called, a "grievous mistake."
“As the engine builder for our partner NASCAR Cup Series teams, TRD is solely responsible for the handling and disposition of all our engines pre- and post-race," Wilson said in a press release issued Thursday afternoon. "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.
"Although we know with absolute certainty that the engine was legal and would have passed inspection, we left NASCAR in an impossible position because they were not given the opportunity to properly inspect our engine.
"We have reviewed our processes and have implemented several additional steps to ensure that this never happens again. TRD takes full responsibility for this grievous mistake, and we apologize to Denny, Chris, Coach Gibbs, the entire JGR organization, NASCAR and our fans.”
