NASCAR did issue written warnings to team
NASCAR cleared the No. 48 team Tuesday, issuing no penalties to the Hendrick Motorsports team of driver Jimmie Johnson for suspected infractions during the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
NASCAR competition officials determined that the Hendrick No. 48 crew did not make an unapproved adjustment of a body panel during a pit stop late in Saturday night’s annual invitational event. NASCAR did, however, issue written warnings to the team.
A NASCAR spokesperson said Saturday night after the 110-lap race that officials were reviewing a potential infraction that centered on the possible alteration of the No. 48 car’s side skirts, the sheet metal ahead of the rear tires. Any unapproved flaring of those body panels could potentially improve air flow over the rear of the car.
The strategy grew popular at the end of the 2014 season as crew members routinely tugged on the body panels during pit stops to gain an aerodynamic advantage. But in January, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell announced that competition officials would police the practice, using the 45 cameras in place for this year’s new pit-road officiating system to look for infractions.
Knaus noted Monday on FOX Sports 1’s “NASCAR Race Hub” program that his crew adjusted the right-side skirt on an early pit stop after Johnson’s car scraped the outside wall during the race’s second segment. Knaus also said that contact with the No. 22 of Joey Logano caused left-side damage that the No. 48 team attempted to repair by pulling on the body panels.
“I don’t know what’s going to come of it right now,” Knaus told FOX Sports 1, “but I don’t think it was too big of a deal personally.”
Robin Pemberton, NASCAR senior vice president of competition and racing development, said in the offseason that if a side-skirt violation was detected, the offending team would be summoned to pit road to correct the issue. Monday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, O’Donnell said that though the All-Star Race did not count for Sprint Cup Series points, it would not affect how they governed any post-race penalty phase.
“Still evaluating that like we do and if we make a decision to react, that would be on Tuesday, but there’s a lot on the line for the All-Star Race,” O’Donnell said. “It’s not a points race, but certainly we know how much it means to win that race, so hopefully we don’t have to make a call on this, but we would maintain the rule book throughout the race.”
The Team Penske No. 2 team of Brad Keselowski was penalized for a similar infraction earlier this season, when the team was removed from the qualifying order just before Coors Light Pole Qualifying at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March. The team was handed a P2-level penalty that placed crew chief Paul Wolfe on probation through the end of the year.