NASCAR officials levied penalties to the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet and No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports teams Saturday at Chicagoland Speedway for multiple pre-race inspection failures, the sanctioning body announced.
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The No. 71 Chevrolet failed three times before passing on its fourth try. Consequently, driver Michael McDowell was not permitted to attempt a qualifying lap and will forfeit pit-stall selection. He’ll start Sunday’s eero 400 (6 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) from 38th and will also serve a pass-through penalty upon the green flag. Additionally, car chief Travis Young has been ejected for the remainder of the race weekend.
The No. 5 Chevrolet, driven by defending series champion Kyle Larson, failed inspection twice before passing on its third try. As a result, the team also lost pit-stall selection, and car chief Jesse Saunders was ejected for the remainder of the race weekend. Larson qualified second for the 400-miler.
McDowell enters the weekend with consecutive top-10 finishes at Naval Base Coronado and Sonoma Raceway, and sits 21st in points — 32 markers behind the provisional Chase cutline. Larson is fifth in points and finished runner-up in each of the series’ last two visits to the 1.5-mile track in 2018 and 2019.