Austin Dillon penalised 60 points for underwing violations

NASCAR‘s penalty drama continues for another week, once again involving a Chevrolet team.

On Wednesday, the sanctioning body handed down an L1-level penalty for Austin Dillon after his #3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet was found to have broken rules pertaining to the underwing assembly mounting and underwing stay assembly hardware after Sunday’s Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway.

Dillon has been docked sixty points in the driver’s and owner’s championships along with five playoff points, while his crew chief Keith Rodden is suspended two races and fined USD$75,000 (€68,452.50).

Due to the points deduction, Dillon falls from twenty-first in points to twenty-eighth. He had finished twelfth at Martinsville before his car was selected for further inspection at NASCAR’s Research & Development centre.

“We are disappointed in the penalty that NASCAR issued to Richard Childress Racing following the recent NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway, and plan to go through the appeal process,” reads a team statement. The case will now be taken to the National Motorsports Appeals Panel.

The penalty continues a string of points-reducing violations that included fellow Chevrolet teams Hendrick Motorsports and Kaulig Racing‘s Justin Haley, as well as Denny Hamlin. All three parties appealed their penalties with Hendrick and Haley, who were busted for louver infractions, getting their points restored while Hamlin’s penalty was upheld for on-track actions.