Busch's car fails post-race inspection at Pocono

LONG POND, Pa. -- The No. 18 Toyota driven by Kyle Busch for Joe Gibbs Racing failed post-race inspection following the 5-Hour Energy 500 at Pocono Raceway on Sunday.

Spokesperson Kristi King of NASCAR said that the left front of Busch's car was deemed too low during post-race inspection. She said it would be brought back to the NASCAR Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C., for further examination, and that any penalties for the infraction would be announced this Tuesday.

Dave Rogers, Busch's crew chief, said he was surprised by the ruling.

"It's disappointing," he said. "I can't tell you a whole lot right now. ... I don't have any excuses for you. We're going to go back to the shop and try to figure it out. It's the last thing I expected after the race [Sunday]. I have as many questions as everyone else right now."

Busch finished third in Sunday's race behind winner Jeff Gordon and second-place finisher Kurt Busch. Rogers said he was informed by NASCAR that the car was 1/16th of an inch too low.

He speculated that perhaps it could be because the car suffered damage during the 500-mile, 200-lap race.

"There is a lot of damage if you look at the left-front fender. You can see we bottomed out," Rogers said. "We got into the fence on the right side a little bit. There is plenty of damage -- but nothing that I could look at and say, 'Hey, NASCAR, here's a problem.'

"They let us look the car over and there is damage, but I would just be trying to make excuses if I tried to justify it. We were 1/16th too low and we have to go back to the shop to figure out why. I don't know why right now."

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