Editor’s note: Story updated on Feb. 27 to include statement from NASCAR official:
NASCAR officials penalized Team Penske driver Joey Logano on Sunday for wearing unapproved safety gloves, forcing the No. 22 Ford to drop to the rear of the field and serve a pass-through on pit road for the start of the Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Logano was found in violation of Section 14.3.1.1 (“Driver Protective Clothing/Equipment”) in the NASCAR Rule Book, which requires protective gloves meet SFI-approved specifications.
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On Tuesday, a NASCAR official said the sanctioning body was taking a deeper look at the penalty.
“We see time and time again at superspeedways and at other events where the drivers will stick their hand out the window; that’s not something that we’ve been all that alarmed about,” said NASCAR Senior VP of Competition Elton Sawyer on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday. “When you take it to the level that you have modified some of the safety equipment, gloves in particular, and then using that, the penalty at the race track was based off that. …
“Now the next step of that is when you look at safety equipment, and we look at this very hard, we take it very seriously. There’s been numerous meetings over time about safety of the car and the equipment and the drivers, and when you take and alter that, that will be something that we discuss today if it needs to have an additional penalty added to that.”
Additionally, the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driven by Chase Elliott dropped to the rear of the field for the Ambetter Health 400 because of unapproved adjustments.
Logano was scheduled to set sail from the second starting spot in Sunday’s 400-miler, the second of 36 points-paying races this season for the Cup Series. Elliott earned the 28th starting berth in Saturday’s qualifying session. Logano finished 28th and Elliott came home 15th.