A member of the National Motorsports Appeals Panel upheld penalties Wednesday against the Niece Motorsports No. 44 team for violations found in post-race inspection after last Sunday’s NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series event at Iowa Speedway.

The Al Niece-owned truck was found to be too low in the front after Ross Chastain drove it to an apparent victory in Sunday’s M&M’s 200 at the .875-mile track. Competition officials disqualified Chastain and the Niece organization, handing the win to Brett Moffitt, who was scored second as the checkered flag unfurled.

RELATED: Moffitt declared winner after No. 44 ruled too low

In filing the expedited appeal, Niece indicated that it planned to argue that minor damage during the course of the 200-lap race caused the No. 44 Chevrolet to fail the minimum height requirement. The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series does not have a ride-height rule, but those guidelines exist in the Xfinity and Gander Trucks tours.

Wednesday’s appeal was heard by Bryan Moss, the former Gulfstream Aerospace president who was appointed as the National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer in 2014. His ruling is final and cannot be appealed. Under this type of appeals process, the burden of proof rested with NASCAR to demonstrate that a rules violation had occurred and that the penalty was appropriate.

Niece Motorsports representatives, including Chastain, released a statement through social media shortly after the hearing’s outcome was announced.

pic.twitter.com/VX9CMP076Q

— Niece Motorsports (@NieceMotorsport) June 19, 2019

Chastain and Niece were also stripped of their two stage wins, stage points and any benefits from the victory that would apply to playoff eligibility. Chastain was demoted to a last-place finish in the 32-truck field, earning five championship points, and all other drivers were moved up by one position in the finishing order. Officials also redistributed stage wins to ThorSport Racing teammates Matt Crafton and Ben Rhodes.

Chastain recently changed his series eligibility, declaring June 4 that he would collect points toward the Gander Trucks championship after opening the season with a focus on the NASCAR Xfinity Series. That left the 26-year-old driver with the challenge of starting with zero points midway through the regular season, requiring him to win and move into the top 20 in the series standings to qualify for the eight-driver playoff field.

Chastain had already scored a Gander Trucks victory this season, prevailing May 10 at Kansas Speedway for the first win of his career in the series. But that triumph did not carry championship implications as Chastain was eligible for Xfinity Series points at the time.

The last time an apparent NASCAR national-series winner was disqualified was when the Emerald Performance Group’s No. 19 Chevrolet driven by Mike Skinner was found with an unapproved cylinder head in an Xfinity Series race in March 1999 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Three days after that decision, the penalty was overturned in an appeal and Skinner was restored as the race winner.

The last national-series disqualification that was upheld came in August 1995 after Dale Jarrett’s first-finishing No. 32 Ford was penalized for an illegal intake manifold at Michigan International Speedway. Mark Martin inherited the victory.

NASCAR officials issued a one-race suspension to Gander Outdoors Truck Series driver Johnny Sauter on Tuesday for his actions during last weekend’s event at Iowa Speedway.

Sauter was involved in an on-track altercation with driver Austin Hill that resulted in NASCAR race control parking him for the remainder of Sunday’s M&M’s 200. Competition officials reported Tuesday that the suspension would not impact Sauter’s postseason eligibility.

RELATED: Sauter crashes into Hill under caution

“We look back at the history of everything we’ve done and try to react with the precedents that we’ve set and then obviously tailoring those to the situation that we have at hand,” said Scott Miller, NASCAR senior vice president of competition. “In this case, we felt like his actions certainly warranted being sat down for an event, but it felt a little too harsh to take him straight out of the championship, so we think we landed on what we feel is fair and a deterrent.”

The penalty will sideline Sauter for this Saturday’s event at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in Madison, Illinois. On Thursday, the team announced that Myatt Snider will pilot the truck at Gateway with Sauter suspended.

RELATED: Snider to step into No. 13 at Gateway

Trucks driven by Hill and Sauter initially made contact early in the final stage of the race, triggering a retaliatory bump from Hill’s Hattori Racing Enterprises No. 16 Toyota. That contact sent Sauter’s ThorSport Racing No. 13 Ford careening into the outside retaining wall, prompting the last of four yellow flags at the .875-mile track.

During the caution period, Sauter meted out payback with a prolonged ramming of Hill’s truck, carrying both vehicles into the wall. NASCAR officials ordered Sauter off the track, ending his day after 137 of the race’s 200 laps.

“We tend to look at incidents under caution as more of a retaliatory thing,” Miller said. “Obviously, him driving half a track with a smoking truck and winding through a few cars to get to the 16 and then running over him, then bouncing off the wall and running into his door, it was pretty aggressive. It was definitely not anything that could in any way, shape or form be defended as a racing incident.”

Miller said competition officials considered sanctions against Hill for the intent of his bump that sparked Sauter’s flare-up.

“We did talk about that,” Miller said, “and while we haven’t typically reacted in the form of a penalty to those things, there will certainly be further discussions with the driver of the 16 and he will definitely be placed under a little bit more of a microscope as far as us watching his actions on the race track.”

Sauter was scored 27th in the final rundown, while Hill righted his damaged truck to place 12th in the 32-truck field. Both drivers were summoned to the NASCAR officials’ hauler after Sunday’s race for consultation, something Miller said would likely happen again to prevent further escalation of their rivalry.

“Those conversations will take place again before they are placed on the race track again together,” Miller said, “and there will be a pretty good understanding that we don’t want to see any more contact or aggressive behavior out of either one of them  — toward each other or other competitors.”

Sauter ranks eighth in the Gander Trucks driver standings. His victory May 3 at Dover International Speedway virtually clinched a berth in the series’ postseason field, which will consist of eight drivers.

Hill sits seventh in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series standings, just eight points ahead of Sauter. Hill opened his second full-time campaign in the Gander Trucks ranks with a victory in the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway.

After the penalty was announced, Sauter indicated Tuesday afternoon through his personal Twitter account that he planned to enter the Dick Trickle 99 race for Super Late Model cars at Dells Raceway Park in his home state of Wisconsin.

Note: NASCAR cited the No. 88 of Matt Crafton for one lug nut not safe and secure for the Iowa race. Crew chief Carl Joiner was fined $2,500.