RICHMOND, Va. — As he listened to the question Friday afternoon, the crew chief began shaking his head with disapproval before a wide smirk broke out across his face. He paused a beat, then offered a response to the burning question in the NASCAR Cup Series garage following the National Motorsports Appeals Panel on Wednesday overturning a portion of the penalties NASCAR had issued to Hendrick Motorsports.
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“How can you be half pregnant?” said the crew chief. “If (Hendrick) truly did something, then why did they get their points back? And if they didn’t do anything, then why fine and suspend them? Makes no sense. I don’t understand it.”
The Athletic spoke to nine NASCAR crew chiefs and three competition directors for this story. They were granted anonymity so they could speak freely about the sensitive situation. And many are equally perplexed.
Despite the three-person panel acknowledging that Hendrick “violated the Rule(s) set forth in the Penalty Notice,” they still rescinded elements of the original penalty. Most significantly, the panel ruled Hendrick drivers Alex Bowman, William Byron and Kyle Larson should not be docked 100 points nor 10 playoff points while each of Hendrick’s four teams should not be docked 100 owner points.
However, the panel did not overturn the four-race suspensions issued to crew chiefs Cliff Daniels, Rudy Fugle, Alan Gustafson and Blake Harris, nor the $100,000 fine assessed to each. The panel did not explain how it reached its decision.
“I’m disappointed,” another crew chief said. “The one thing NASCAR has made clear is we’re not supposed to mess with vendor parts. Period. They’ve been as clear as day. If you do that, you’re going to get hammered. So, then explain to me how they get their points back — the one thing that really, really matters in the big picture. I don’t get it. At all.”
Said a different crew chief: “It’s stupid as hell. Never has that happened in my career.”
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In a statement released Wednesday following the NMAP’s decision, NASCAR echoed the disappointment expressed by many throughout the garage. Such candor from the league is rare when a ruling goes against it.
“We are pleased that the National Motorsports Appeals Panel agreed that Hendrick Motorsports violated the rule book,” the statement said. “However, we are disappointed that the entirety of the penalty was not upheld. A points penalty is a strong deterrent that is necessary to govern the garage following rule book violations, and we believe that it was an important part of the penalty in this case and moving forward. We will continue to inspect and officiate the NASCAR garage at the highest level of scrutiny to ensure a fair and level playing field for our fans and the entire garage.”
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The penalties stem from NASCAR discovering louvers on the four Hendrick cars prior to a practice session last month at Phoenix Raceway. The cooling vents are not manufactured by the teams but obtained from a single-source supplier, and NASCAR has been adamant that anyone caught making improper modifications to any vendor parts would face stiff consequences.
During the 2022 season, the first of NASCAR’s Next Gen car featuring numerous vendor-made parts, NASCAR issued penalties to RFK Racing, Front Row Motorsports and Stewart-Haas Racing for various infractions when officials determined those teams made improper modifications to their cars. RFK lost its appeal, while FRM and SHR elected not to go through the appeal process.
The expectation was that NASCAR’s hardline stance would continue this season.
“We sat every employee down and told them explicitly not to do anything to (vendor) parts even if they’re wrong,” another crew chief told The Athletic. “Don’t touch the parts was our message to them. … We spend a ton of time making sure we don’t go out of bounds because it’s so easy to go out of bounds. There are parts that are questionable, no doubt, but we do our due diligence to make sure we catch them.”
“We had crystal clear direction last year, we knew what we could and could not do,” said a competition director.
Ever since the Next Gen car was rolled out, the quality of the parts supplied to teams has been called into question. Teams have frequently lamented that parts don’t properly fit or are not made to a quality level that meets their expectations.
“We as a company and everyone in this garage are being held accountable to put their car out there for inspection and perform at the level they need to,” said Chad Knaus, Hendrick vice president of competition, on March 17 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “Like the teams are being held accountable for doing that. Nobody is holding the single-source providers accountable at the level they need to be to give us the parts that we need. Now, that goes through NASCAR’s distribution center and NASCAR’s approval process, and we’re not getting the right parts.
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“There are so many areas in which they need to improve upon and, again, that’s probably why I’m most disappointed. We’ve been going down this path working collectively as a group for quite some time, and for this to pop up like this is really disappointing.”
Nearly every crew chief and team competition director The Athletic spoke to at Richmond agrees with Knaus that there are repeated issues with single-sourced parts. The louvers are particularly problematic.
NASCAR’s stance is that a system is in place — should a team encounter an issue with a vendor part, they are to report it to NASCAR and not make any modifications without direct approval.
“The louvers are such a chaotic f—— thing,” a crew chief said. “It’s so hard because the reality is the pieces don’t always fit and they’re not always right.”
NASCAR stripping a team of driver and owner points is one of the main conduits to ensuring that teams conform to its rules because a team’s points ranking affects bonus money earned. Because it’s the punishment that most impacts a team’s bottom line, any loss of points is considered significant; the loss of a crew chief or having to pay a $100,000 fine, less so.
Technology has lessened the negative impact a suspension has on a team due to crew chiefs remaining in constant communication with their team while working remotely. Last year, Denny Hamlin won the Coca-Cola 600 with an interim crew chief because his regular crew chief, Chris Gabehart, was suspended four races due to a wheel coming off Hamlin’s car during a race at Dover Motor Speedway. Every crew chief The Athletic spoke to said they’d gladly take a four-race suspension and a fine (nearly always paid by the team) if it meant finding a performance advantage and not incurring a points deduction — especially bigger organizations that have greater depth and the financial means to offset any suspensions and/or fines.
“Would I trade being home for four weeks and the money for a win? You’re really asking me that?” one crew chief asked incredulously. “I wouldn’t give it a second thought. In a heartbeat; a win would absolutely be worth it.”
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Said a different crew chief: “No one cares about the money or the suspensions, the points are the only thing that matters.”
Now that the deterrent that dissuaded many teams from pushing too far has seemingly been muted, the expectation is that NASCAR will react how it typically does whenever it loses an appeal — by issuing a rules update that it hopes will close any perceived loophole in its rulebook. Any update may not come until after next week, though, as Kaulig Racing has an appeal hearing set for Wednesday for the same violation found on the Hendrick cars.
But until that update is enacted, if it comes at all, there is a sense within the garage that teams may feel emboldened to modify single-sourced parts whereas before they may have been leery to do so.
“You watch, this garage is going to become the wild, wild west,” a crew chief said.
“It’s lawlessness now,” said another.
“We spend so much time making sure we don’t do something that oversteps, then you see something like this, and you don’t know what to think,” said another. “Maybe we are too careful and we shouldn’t be; might be time to change our approach.”
“The fence has been knocked down,” said a competition director. “Anything apparently goes now.”
“You want (the penalties) to fall one way or another,” said another competition director. “This is where it gets sticky for us. The middle is confusing; the middle ground is untenable.”
Wednesday’s decision did produce another unintended consequence, this one earning NASCAR a sentiment rarely expressed toward the league by its drivers and crew members — one of sympathy.
Following through on the edict it laid down last year that anyone caught messing with the Next Gen car would be dealt with harshly, NASCAR punished the most successful organization in its 75-year history by handing Hendrick a severe penalty, only to watch it be significantly lessened on appeal.
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“This is kind of a bad, bad beat for NASCAR,” 23XI Racing co-owner and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin said Saturday at a press conference.
Said a crew chief: “It’s tough for all parties, NASCAR and the rest of the garage, but especially NASCAR. How are they supposed to police us now? They tried to be fair and it still blew up on them. Sucks.”
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(Photo: Logan Riely / Getty Images)