FONTANA, Calif. – NASCAR issued an L1 penalty Sunday morning to NASCAR Cup Series team JTG Daugherty Racing that will cost its drivers Ryan Preece and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. their crew chiefs for Sunday’s Auto Club 400 at Auto Club (Calif.) Speedway.
While the infraction was discovered before Saturday’s qualifying session at Auto Club, the sanctioning body did not make the penalty public until shortly after the garage opened Sunday.
NASCAR ejected crew chief Trent Owens (Preece) and Brian Pattie (Stenhouse) after both teams violated Section 20.20 of the Rule Book: Assembled Vehicle Overall Rules. That section states: “Parts, systems, devices, omissions or component failures cannot affect what should otherwise be the normal airflow over the body of the vehicle.”
NASCAR officials confirmed the violations following each team’s qualifying runs.
Stenhouse qualified 10th, while Preece was slated to start 20th.
In addition to losing their crew chiefs, both teams lost 10 points in the owner and driver standings and will start the third race of the season from the rear of the field.
“We are aware of the penalties handed down by NASCAR this morning at Auto Club Speedway,” car owner Tad Geschickter said in a statement. “Brian Burns will be the crew chief for Ryan Preece and the No. 37 team and Eddie Pardue will be the crew chief for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and the No. 47 team. We have no plans to appeal the penalty at this time.”
With the points reduction, Stenhouse has dropped from fifth to tied for 13th in the Cup standings, while Preece finds himself in the negative after only accumulating nine points total in the opening two races at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway.
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