Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – When the iconic Michael Jordan teamed with one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers in Denny Hamlin to form 23XI Racing, few would have pinned Kansas Speedway as the team’s best facility.

That includes the team’s inaugural driver, Bubba Wallace.

MORE: Kansas schedule | At-track photos: Kansas

Yet the 1.5-mile tri-oval just west of the Missouri River beckoned a 23XI sweep in 2022, only its second year in existence, giving the two-car program half of its four total wins at this one track alone. The No. 45 Toyota prevailed at the Midwestern circuit in both May and September, but it was both primary drivers Kurt Busch and Wallace collecting the respective wins.

“I’m assuming that when they all started this, they didn’t really plan on sweeping Kansas races in their second year going,” Wallace said Saturday.

Wallace returns in his now-traditional No. 23 entry while fresh-faced teammate Tyler Reddick has taken over the No. 45 car in place of Busch after his 2022 injury. Team president Steve Lauletta lauded how critical last year’s triumphs were for the young organization ahead of Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“I think it was a big statement for the team because of how we won both races, right?” Lauletta told NASCAR.com in a Wednesday phone interview. “It was the first win for a brand-new team and the 45 in the spring with Kurt behind the wheel. And then we follow it up with the 23 team with Bubba in the fall, who was running the 45 based on Kurt making the playoffs from that Kansas win, and we backed it up, and we drove that car to Victory Lane.

“So the 45 winning both races in Kansas with two different drivers, two different teams shows how adaptable the team is and how we work as one organization in terms of preparing and sharing data and information. And the approach that we have as an organization really came to life with how we won both those races.”

The circumstances in 2022 were challenging to say the least. Busch, beginning that year at age 43, joined the program to help the team grow and invest his time, energy and championship-caliber abilities to do so. His May victory was physical proof that work on and off the track was paying off.

But the concussion Busch sustained during qualifying at Pocono Raceway a little more than two months later has sidelined the 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion to this day. Busch remains an integral part of 23XI Racing, though, an ever-present face despite no longer wheeling a race car himself.

“He’s active with the drivers, working with both Tyler and Bubba,” Lauletta said. “He’s active with everybody on the team from a culture standpoint and bringing his enthusiasm and his love of building this team into a contender that he has his fingerprints on from last year and wants to keep that going.

“He’s also got his input into what we’re doing with our partners, keeping a great relationship with Monster, with McDonald’s, with Toyota and MoneyLion and all the ones that supported him last year when he moved to 23XI. So he hasn’t missed a beat with us, and in fact, is having as much of an impact out of the car as he did in the car last year.”

What the team accomplished on track in Kansas a season ago still resonates loudly within the shop. Wallace’s September victory propelled the No. 45 team further into the owners points playoffs and served as his second career Cup win – his first on a non-superspeedway oval.

In this 2022 photo, Bubba Wallace celebrates his win at Kansas
Chris Graythen | Getty Images

“That team and Bubba took that responsibility, and week in and week out were a top-10 car, and that led to, you know, closing it out with the win at Kansas,” Lauletta said. “But they were just always there. And that had him and everybody here realizing like we can do this week in and week out, and there shouldn’t be any expectation that we’re not going to do that.”

RELATED: Relive Busch’s victory | Look back at Wallace’s triumph

The Kansas victory was no mistake, either. The Alabama native led for a career-high 58 laps en route to the win, adding onto a career-best season in top fives (five) and top 10s (10) while scoring a victory in consecutive seasons.

“The win last year was big for the team, and to complete the sweep was really cool,” Wallace said. “I thought the 23 car was pretty solid there in the first race too. We had some troubles that kind of took us out of contention, but to come back and seal the deal in the 45 was just special for our team and being so new, right? That was our second year, and making the most of it. … Just proud to be a part of the process. And coming back here, all the momentum’s on our side.”

That September performance was a statement, not just to spectators but higher-ups within the 23XI organization. Wallace is the driver Jordan and Hamlin chose to build the program around when it came onto the scene in 2021. In truth, the win was an exclamation point on the solid midseason Wallace strung together over the course of the 2022 season. His growth has been evident to team co-owner Hamlin.

“He’s better than I thought he was,” a blunt Hamlin said. “I mean, that’s just the simple answer is that I knew he was good. I didn’t know how that he had the potential to be great. And I think that he’s continued to chip away at getting better and better every week. Every race track that has been an Achilles’ heel to him, he just keeps chipping away and finishing a few spots better each time he goes. He’s really evolving as a driver, and I think that I’m super-proud for him.”

The turning point came almost exactly a year ago.

“After Dover last year, met with the drivers, met with the team on my expectations,” Hamlin explained. “I certainly was not ecstatic about our performance, both on and off the race track and just felt like we needed to step up and figure out who we were going to be.”

Tyler Reddick climbs into his No. 45 Toyota at Kansas
Sean Gardner | Getty Images

Now in the 23XI fold himself, Reddick showed significant speed in his No. 8 Chevrolet with Richard Childress Racing in 2022 in both Kansas races, but flat tires derailed his days in each visit.

“Seeing the pace that the 23XI has when we’ve been going to Kansas and having to race against them, in the past, it’s been frustrating, but now it’s really nice seeing the speed that they have,” Reddick said last week at Dover.

With speed comes a plethora of positivity heading into a race weekend. Wallace and Reddick know the tall tasks at hand that come with putting a complete race together en route to the win. But motivating performances and open notebooks provide a strong platform to build upon heading into this weekend’s event.

“Everyone takes a lot of great notes,” Reddick said, praising Busch in addition to crew chiefs Billy Scott and Bootie Barker. “Just the amount of information that everyone shares within our organization and then what we share with Joe Gibbs and back and forth gives us all a lot of knowledge to go off of. So everyone’s done a really good job of that, and we’ve had plenty to go off of for sure to prepare for this race.”

Such a detailed notebook stokes confidence, which Reddick has proven can be enough fuel on its own to propel him to success.

“When you have confidence like that, it’s a game changer, you know?” Reddick said. “I mean, like, we were all kind of nervous (yet) excited about what we were gonna have at COTA, right? And we go out there and P1 in practice, run the lap times that we did, and then qualify like we did too, you know, like, that’s just a huge shot of confidence.

“So when you’re going into a place that you won both races last year, as a team standpoint, you’re very, very confident going in, and that’s a great thing for motivation.”

Both drivers have proven their strengths at this particular mile-and-a-half track. Now the internal battles begin.

“Obviously, Bubba’s excited about Kansas. I am, too,” Reddick said. “I guess we’ve just gotta figure out how we’re gonna sort that one out – which one of us will win it.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

Grant Enfinger stayed ahead of trouble in a race that produced seven cautions for 40 of 134 laps and forged a decisive victory in Saturday night’s Heart of America 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway.

Enfinger crossed the finish line 4.358 seconds ahead of Corey Heim to post his first victory of the season.

RELATED: Race results | Weekend schedule

Enfinger’s eighth career win was his first at Kansas and his first since winning at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis in the 17th race of 2022.

“It was a huge night for us,” said Enfinger, who led a race-high 65 laps. “From the drop of the green flag, we had a really, really good Chevy Silverado. Just started out really tight. Once (crew chief) Jeff (Hensley) made one adjustment on it, I felt like from that point forward, we were potentially the best truck out there.”

ENFINGER SAYS MORE: ‘Lights out’ performance

Grant Enfinger races across the finish line.
Sean Gardner | Getty Images

Heim won a close battle for second over Zane Smith. Stewart Friesen was fourth, followed by Ross Chastain. Nick Sanchez, Kyle Busch, Jake Garcia, Taylor Gray and Tyler Ankrum completed the top 10.

The final caution dimmed Heim’s chances.

“I think that last caution (for Kris Wright’s second spin) put a hole in our strategy a little bit,” Heim said. “If we had that last run go green and we had the same tires as the 23 (Enfinger), I thought we could beat him straight up.

“As soon as we got that last caution and we were on uneven tires, I knew it was going to be all track position. I got hung up trying to block the 38 (Smith) and kind of took a step back from there and lost track position.”

Two of the fastest trucks in the race saw their winning chances end in a shunt on Lap 72, when Rajah Caruth spun across the bumper of Ty Majeski’s No. 98 Toyota into the outside wall on the frontstretch.

Caruth’s truck was too heavily damaged to continue, and Majeski’s too heavily damaged to contend.

“It was really close, and we had a long way to go,” Caruth said after exiting the infield care center. “I was trying to cover the top, and he just kind of hooked me there. Good to know.

“I didn’t double-move or anything. I picked the top there, and he just took me.”

From appearances, though, Caruth was late in an attempt to block Majeski’s progress, to the detriment of both trucks. Majeski finished 25th.

“We had a good truck. We got back up front there with a little bit of strategy,” Majeski said. “Thought we may have made a wrong adjustment when we were racing the No. 24 there. He was ultra-aggressive blocking. So, he blocked once, then twice, and I had a run and he was a little late.”

Pole winner Christian Eckes likewise was involved in a terminal wreck after the subsequent restart on Lap 79. Aggression got the best of drivers at the front of the field, and the trucks of Eckes, Matt DiBenedetto, Carson Hocevar and Chase Purdy all were KO’d in Turn 1.

“Just aggression I guess,” Eckes said. “He (DiBenedetto) blocked a little late and got loose, and I tried to go high, and I might have caught his rear quarter panel. Yeah, it sucks.”

WATCH: Big wreck stacks up contenders

Busch won the first stage before tangling with Ben Rhodes after the Stage 2 restart. Enfinger powered past Busch into the lead on Lap 40 but came to pit road under the third caution for Wright’s spin through the infield grass.

Enfinger gave up the lead with the stop but charged back to second by the end of the stage, which Majeski won.

The Craftsman Truck Series’ next race is the Buckle Up South Carolina 200, scheduled Friday at Darlington Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Note: Post-race inspection in the Craftsman Trucks garage was completed without issue, confirming Enfinger’s victory.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Reid Spencer

Almost assuredly, Tyler Reddick will qualify for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, thanks to his March 26 victory on the road course at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas.

But the driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota hasn’t adjusted seamlessly to the transition to his new Toyota team. In fact, after moving from Richard Childress Racing to 23XI to start the 2023 season, Reddick has suffered through some spotty results on paved oval tracks.

RELATED: See full Cup Series schedule | Toyota growing in ’24 with Legacy MC

“Honestly, I like to look at the ‘What ifs’ to a degree,” Reddick said. “We’ve had a lot of other good races that have kind of gotten away from us. But this is a new venture for me—my first year with Toyota, first year with this team and just trying to get to know everybody.

“I think, from that standpoint, we’re doing a really good job of that. It’s really great that we have that win, but we’re just building on all the important things that matter when the playoffs come around.

“The numbers, while we’d certainly like to have a few more here or there in certain columns, it’s just about going through these experiences and learning together, so when it comes time to get down to business in the playoffs, we’ve gone through all those trials, and we’re ready.”

Reddick comes to Kansas Speedway with extra motivation. The No. 45 Camry he drives swept last year’s two races at the 1.5-mile track—with two different drivers behind the wheel.

Kurt Busch won the spring race, and after Busch was sidelined with concussion-like symptoms, Bubba Wallace moved from his customary No. 23 to the No. 45 and won the playoff race at Kansas last September.

MORE: Can 23XI Racing keep Kansas streak alive?

With the start of the new season, the No. 45 went to Reddick, who has a chance to be the third straight different 23XI driver to win a race at Kansas.

“This is a track where I had a lot of speed last year in both events (in the No. 8 RCR Chevrolet) but just couldn’t quite put the whole race together,” Reddick said.

“I’m really excited to get back here, obviously. I had to race against 23XI here last year, and it was really cool to see all the speed they had, knowing that I was going to be going there at some point.”

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Legacy Motor Club sent a ripple through the NASCAR Cup Series garage after announcing Tuesday that the two-car team will switch to Toyota for the 2024 season, a shift from its current relationship with Chevrolet.

Its leap in alliances adds a pair of cars to a manufacturer in serious need of more entrants. The only current Toyotas on track are the four fielded by Joe Gibbs Racing and two by 23XI Racing. For the time being at Toyota, the more the merrier, particularly at superspeedways where drafting partners can more swiftly equal success.

“Talking with Toyota (executives), they’re excited because it’s numbers, right?” Bubba Wallace, driver of the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota, said Saturday at Kansas Speedway. “We’re getting more numbers, more cars to play, especially (super)speedway stuff, so strategy can vary now a little bit. Still a minority, but I think numbers (are) important for sure.”

MORE: Full details on Legacy’s move | Kansas schedule

Martin Truex Jr., the series’ most recent winner and 2017 champion, echoed Wallace’s observations, thankful for more resources to pull from as a whole in the near future.

“I think it’s good for us. I think any time we get more cars in the Toyota camp, it’s more information, it’s more ideas being thrown around,” Truex said. “And then, especially when we go superspeedway racing, it’s more partners for us that we’ve struggled to not have. I think it’s good on all fronts.”

His teammate, Tyler Reddick, is looking forward to having some familiar faces join the brigade in the upcoming year. Legacy M.C. drivers Noah Gragson and Erik Jones, who drive the Nos. 42 and 43 cars, respectively, both used to compete for Toyota. Jones rode the Toyota train from Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Craftsman Truck Series all the way to JGR in Cup, while Gragson spent two years at KBM.

“Really excited about it,” Reddick said. “Obviously, the more of us that we have out there on the race track certainly really helps at the superspeedways, but just having a larger pool of drivers and crew chiefs and minds that can share information with one another and work together. Obviously, I guess I don’t know how all that’s gonna work out. I don’t want to say anything before I should. But certainly, on the drivers’ side, getting to work with Noah again is going to be a lot of fun. Me and him worked together a lot when we were at Chevy, and Erik’s familiar with the Toyota camp and has had a lot of success with Toyota as well.”

Jones and Gragson will also, in a way, reunite with former KBM teammate Christopher Bell, the driver of the No. 20 Toyota at JGR that Jones previously piloted.

“What’s ironic is I’ve been teammates with both of them already,” Bell said. “It’s gonna be really interesting to see how they fit into the equation. I don’t know if we’re gonna have debriefs with them or if they’re gonna kind of be on their own separate page. So there’s a lot of details that I’m not aware of yet. That’ll really tell the tale.”

Posted on by Adam Fenwick

WINCHESTER, N.H. – It only took three races during the 2023 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season for Doug Coby and Tommy Baldwin Racing to return to their winning ways.

Coby, who won three NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour races in a part-time role with the team in 2022 and is running the full schedule this season, took the lead on Lap 13 and cruised to victory in Saturday’s Duel at the Dog 200 at Monadnock Speedway.

The race served as the opening round of the Whelen Granite State Short Track Cup, a special mini-series created by JDV Productions.

RELATED: Results from Saturday’s Duel at the Dog 200

The driver from Milford, Connecticut, credited his early years racing quarter midgets at the Silver City Quarter Midget Club in Meriden, Connecticut, for preparing him to race at a track like Monadnock.

“I’m a quarter midget kid man. Silver City is opening their season today, a tight little bullring,” Coby said after his 35th career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victory. “That’s where you start when you’re five or six years old and learn how to get around these quarter miles. I’ll tell you what, I’ve won at some big race tracks, but it’s the little ones that mean the most and really make me think of my roots and where I started.”

After starting fourth, Coby made quick work of the drivers that started in front him. He moved by Ron Silk to take second on Lap 8 and it only took him five more laps to move past Bonsignore to assume the lead.

While he led the rest of the 200-lap event, that doesn’t mean he went unchallenged. He had to fend off multiple challenges from Bonsignore and other drivers during several restarts.

“This thing was just awesome,” Coby said. “I had to fend those guys off on restarts. Justin was pretty nice to me that one or two times he got under me. He probably thought it was a little too early to push the issue.

“We race each other hard and sometimes we know when it’s time to push and when it’s not. I knew with 50 to go that he wasn’t going to lift the next time he got under me. We just had enough car to drive away and clear the lap cars.”

Saturday’s victory in the Duel in the Dog 200 is Coby’s second at Monadnock, making him the second NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour driver with multiple victories at the quarter-mile bullring. Bonsignore has four Tour victories at the track.

Jon McKennedy, the defending NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion, made a late charge through the field to finish second. New Smyrna Speedway winner Ron Silk finished third, followed by Richmond Raceway winner Austin Beers and Bonsignore.

Sam Rameau, Eric Goodale, Kyle Bonsignore, Matt Hirschman and Patrick Emerling completed the top-10.

A replay of the Duel at the Dog 200 at Monadnock will air on CNBC on Saturday, May 13 at 9:30 a.m. ET.

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season resumes with the first of two trips this season to New York’s Riverhead Raceway on Saturday, May 20. That event will air live on FloRacing beginning at 8 p.m. ET.

Posted on by Staff Report

Duel at the Dog 200

Monadnock Speedway

  • Race Results
Pos No. Name Sponsor Laps
1 7 Doug Coby Mayhew Tools 200
2 79 Jon McKennedy Middlesex Interiors 200
3 16 Ron Silk Blue Mountain Machine and Future Homes 200
4 64 Austin Beers Dell Elect/Lumierre Elect/Andrew James Interior 200
5 51 Justin Bonsignore Phoenix Communications Inc. 200
6 06 Sam Rameau Quality Fleet Services/Dennison Lubricants 200
7 58 Eric Goodale GAF Roofing 200
8 22 Kyle Bonsignore Chateau Performance/MTT/Munn’s Auto 200
9 60 Matt Hirschman Pee Dee Motorsports 200
10 07 Patrick Emerling Bonesteel Automotive 200
11 32 Tyler Rypkema Northeast Drilling/MUSCO Lighting 200
12 34 J.B. Fortin A&R Materials/John’s Fuel Oil/Rapid Recovery 200
13 25 Brian Roble * Maurice Enterprises 200
14 3 Jake Johnson * Propane Plus/Lins Propane Trucks 200
15 6 Woody Pitkat Koopman Lumber 199
16 82 Craig Lutz Horton Ave Materials 199
17 54 Tommy Catalano FX Caprara/Catalano Motorsports 199
18 46 Justin Brown * Riverhead Building Supply 199
19 18 Ken Heagy Buoy One Seafood and Restaurant 198
20 43 Matt Kimball * J&M Towing/Poodlack Wealth Mgmt/Post & Beam 197
21 5 Kyle Ebersole Ebersole Excavating Inc. 197
22 24 Andrew Krause Supreme Manufacturing 197
23 26 Gary McDonald Lakeland Landscape /TRC Electric 193
24 4 Tim Connelly * Connelly Companies LLC 187
25 19 Anthony Sesely Wanick Construction Inc. 142
26 01 Melissa Fifield Pine Knoll Auto Sales 121
27 92 Anthony Nocella Nocella Paving/K&D Associates/Airgas 94
28 47 Jacob Perry * Jacks Competition Engine/Rick Rak 20
29 1 Cory Plummer * Apex Racing/Gene’s Auto Service 11
30 36 Dave Sapienza Sapienza Enterprise/Eastport Feeds 4
Posted on by Reid Spencer

If William Byron maintains his pace, he’s going to earn a nickname — as “Rocket Man” Ryan Newman did for his qualifying prowess.

With a lap at 179.206 mph (30.133 seconds) on Saturday afternoon at Kansas Speedway, Byron earned the pole position for Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at the 1.5-mile intermediate track (3 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Sunday’s starting lineup | Weekend schedule

In an extremely tight final round, Byron edged teammate Kyle Larson (179.134 mph) by 0.006 seconds to earn the 10th Busch Light Pole Award of his career in 192 events, which included a stretch during the pandemic when qualifying did not take place.

Larson and teammate Chase Elliott (21st in qualifying) are the only Chevrolet drivers to win in the last 12 Cup races at Kansas.

The pole was Byron’s second of the season and his first at Kansas. Ross Chastain claimed the third starting spot with a lap at 179.134 mph, just 0.012 seconds behind Byron.

“I had to work on the balance (in practice) to get (the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet) freer for qualifying, but it seemed like we did that there,” said Byron, who continued without issue after a minor wall scrape in practice. “So really good through (Turns) 1 and 2 and got a little tight through 3 and 4, so I’ve got some data to probably study of how I can get through that end.

“But I’m just proud of the effort from the whole team.”

Martin Truex Jr., Monday’s winner at Dover Motor Speedway, qualified fourth, followed by Tyler Reddick, who is attempting to extend the two-race Kansas winning streak of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota. Kurt Busch and Bubba Wallace won in the car last season at the track on the Kansas side of the Missouri River.

Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs, Denny Hamlin, Daniel Suárez and Ryan Blaney completed the top 10 in qualifying, which included an eclectic mix of four Chevrolets, four Toyotas and two Fords.

With hot weather predicted for Sunday, Byron spent the week preparing for the high temperatures on the track.

“Yeah, it’s going to be a scorcher, so I’m just trying to stay hydrated,” said Byron, who has never converted a Cup pole into a victory. “I did a lot of work throughout the week for that. Yeah, it’s going to be tough inside the car, so just got to stay mentally locked in and hopefully have a solid, smooth race, have good pit stops and good restarts.”

Byron said that, as part of his training for the heat, he stayed in the sauna until he couldn’t stand it. But some of that heat apparently transferred to his car during Saturday’s qualifying session.

Truex (Group A) and Chastain (Group B) were tops in their respective portions of qualifying. The five fastest from each group went for the pole position in the final round.

Hamlin fastest in Kansas practice

Denny Hamlin powered to the top of the Cup Series practice leaderboard Saturday, leading the way with a best lap of 174.887 mph.

Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota also performed in the longer-haul runs, topping the charts in the consecutive 10-lap, 15-lap and 20-lap averages categories.

Austin Cindric was second-fastest on the single-lap ledger, clocking a 174.531-mph lap in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford. Kyle Busch was third-fastest, with Joey Logano and Bubba Wallace completing the top five in that order.

RELATED: Practice results

William Byron scrubbed the outside retaining wall in Turn 3 roughly five minutes into the Group A practice session. His No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet made its way back to the pit road with slight right-side damage. He later recovered to make the final round of qualifying and eventually secured the pole position.

Josh Bilicki’s No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet was the only other casualty of practice, with the car breaking loose off Turn 2 and sliding to a halt on the backstretch apron. Bilicki did not post a lap in qualifying.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR officials penalized two Cup Series teams Saturday for issues in pre-race technical inspection at Kansas Speedway.

RELATED: Weekend schedule | Latest odds: Kansas

The No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota for driver Tyler Reddick and the No. 15 Rick Ware Racing Ford driven by Brennan Poole both failed pre-race inspection twice at the 1.5-mile track. Those penalties meant an ejection for the car chief for each team and a loss of pit-stall selection for Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The corresponding car chiefs who will be barred from the rest of the weekend are Dave Jones (No. 15) and Michael Hobson (No. 45), according to the NASCAR rosters portal.

Reddick was among the pre-race favorites, clocking in at 8-1 odds to win Sunday’s 400-miler. The No. 45 team has swept the last two Kansas Speedway races, with Kurt Busch (spring) and Bubba Wallace (fall) dividing victories in last year’s Cup Series events there.

Reddick qualified fifth for Sunday’s race, the 12th Cup Series event of the season. Poole is set to start 34th in the 36-car field, making his second Cup Series start of the year.

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — NASCAR officials met with media members Saturday morning to display and explain the specific modified part that led to the L1-level penalty issued to the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team, following the April 16 race at Martinsville Speedway.

MORE: Kansas schedule | Cup standings

Brad Moran, managing director of the NASCAR Cup Series, and Carl Goodman, who manages and oversees technical inspection for the series, brought the piece to Kansas Speedway to further explain what went wrong, leading to a 60-point penalty against the No. 3 team and its driver Austin Dillon, in addition to the $75,000 fine and two-week suspension issued to crew chief Keith Rodden.

The part is known as a splitter stay, one of six bars that connect the splitter to the frame of the body as part of the overall underwing. Each bar is supposed to feature three separate securing nuts — two jam nuts and a centered couple nut — that lock the splitter into place within one one-thousandth of an inch and is not adjustable after pre-race inspection.

However, on the specific bar utilized by the No. 3 team at Martinsville, those three nuts were bonded together, creating one singular piece instead — which disables the locking function of the nuts and permits further movement and adjustability either after pre-race inspection or during a pit stop.

The No. 3 Chevrolet was not inspected during at-track post-race inspection, selected instead to be taken to the NASCAR Research & Development Center for a full teardown. Moran explained Saturday each vehicle that is brought back to R&D gets a full, thorough strip down to the bare bones, disassembling and inspecting each panel, rod and piece with intense scrutiny. That process, he said, is meant to further ensure the model of the Next Gen vehicle, which features a plethora of single-sourced parts that teams must purchase to build their vehicles.

The modified parts that led to the penalty issued to Dillon’s No. 3 team are parts that the team is responsible for, though the rod and adjuster are supplied by single-source providers. Goodman explained that adjusting the splitter manipulates the floor of the vehicle, which is the most aerodynamically powerful section of the car. A single turn, the officials said, creates a significant adjustment.

The piece was made available for display Saturday in the NASCAR hauler for team managers and crew chiefs who chose to see it themselves. NASCAR is implementing a renewed sense of transparency and intends to make illegal parts available to media and team members on the first day of a Cup Series race weekend for further explanation, pending conclusions of any appeals.

The No. 3 team did appeal the penalty but lost its hearing on May 2. The National Motorsports Appeals Panel, which saw J. Kirk Russell, Lake Speed and Kevin Whitaker hear the case, stated: “As submitted the nuts are not a thread locking device – they are connected and part of the turnbuckle. The nuts do not lock the assembly. Therefore, the assembly has been modified.”