No. 48 team wins appeal of P1 penalty

But more than that, crew chief Chad Knaus said, the organization has a somewhat better grasp concerning the issuance of written warnings and the penalty process tied into that particular portion of NASCAR's Deterrence Policy.

"If you look at the way the warning schedule is and the way the penalties can start to accumulate over a period of time, we needed to understand the methodology behind that," Knaus, crew chief for six-time Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, said following the hearing.

"We have a better understanding of that now. I think along with all the teams and NASCAR, I think we all are going to have some more conversations about that in the future, about how the warnings are applied and how they can be contested moving forward."

MORE: Knaus explains failed inspections at Pocono

NASCAR penalized the No. 48 team, as well as the No. 51 of HScott Motorsports, after the two groups received written warnings during consecutive races at Charlotte Motor Speedway – last month's Sprint All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600.

Under the deterrence system, consecutive warnings can result in the infraction being categorized as a P1 level, still relatively minor but something that does carry penalties. In this case, the 48 and 51 teams lost the right to select their respective pit stalls based on where they qualified for the May 31 race at Dover International Speedway.

Because HMS officials appealed the penalty, the action was deferred and Johnson's team was allowed to choose his pit stall relative to his qualifying position at Dover. And although he started 14th, Johnson won the race, the 10th win of his career at the 1-mile concrete track and his fourth of the season.

The HScott team did not appeal its penalty.

The motorsports panel, which consisted of track operator Richard Gore as well as former executives David Hall (TNT) and Jay Signore (IROC), ruled that NASCAR was correct in issuing a warning for the All-Star Race for a side-skirt violation by the HMS team. There was, however, "conflicting evidence about the inspection violation which led to the second violation …" according to the panel.

NASCAR issued the second warning after pre-qualifying inspection prior to the Coca-Cola 600.

Because only one warning, the side skirt violation, was "shown by a preponderance of the evidence," the panel rescinded the P1 penalty.

Team owner Rick Hendrick and car chief Ron Malec joined Knaus at the hearing.

Under NASCAR's deterrence policy, if a team member or team receives six or more warnings during a six-month period from the time of the first warning, the level of the penalty, and ensuing actions, could rise to P2. Eight or more warnings within a 12-month window could increase it to a P3 level.

While the panel struck the P1 level portion of the penalty, Knaus said he didn't know how that would impact the number of warnings the team had received.

"That's kind of the reason we're here, to understand the format and how all of that's going to play out," he said. "As of right now, we're waiting to get some clarification of the warnings from the hearing; obviously the penalty is gone. So we're waiting for that."

NASCAR teams select pit stalls based on their qualifying results, with the pole winner getting first choice, the No. 2 qualifier choosing second, etc. There is strategy that goes into the selection process, and it is based on factors that include clear entry and exit points into and out of the stalls, such as those nearest openings in the pit wall, as well as the location of timing lines along pit road.

"I think it's very important," said Knaus. "You've heard me say time and time again that the race starts on Friday. It starts with qualifying, with your pit pick, all that stuff is a transition on how you perform on race day. The 4 car (of Kevin Harvick) got stuck behind the 88 (of Dale Earnhardt Jr.) last week in Pocono; that could have been detrimental to them. So I think every hit you take going into a race is significant. So yeah, yeah it was important."

Harvick's Stewart-Haas Racing team lost its pit selection choice last weekend at Pocono for written warnings received at Charlotte and the following weekend at Dover. Instead of selecting fifth, based on his qualifying result, the No. 4 team was saddled with the final choice of pit stall.

"We need to get in here and understand the format, understand the system and thankfully we have a system like this," Knaus said. "I think it's great that NASCAR is willing to have an open forum where we can get together and chat and have a face-to-face conversation about it and try to get some clarification."