After a nail-biting wait, a stunning reversal for Chase Briscoe and the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team today as the National Motorsports Appeals Panel voted in their favor after they appealed penalties issued following the NASCAR season-opener.
The Daytona 500 pole-sitter was hit with a massive L2 penalty following the season-opener, losing 100 driver and owner points after NASCAR found that the holes around the spoiler mount were elongated. The sanctioning body considers this a manipulation of single-source supplied parts and along with the points deduction, suspended crew chief James Small for four races and issued a $100,000 fine. Wednesday, though, in a stunning surprise, the panel ruled in favor of Briscoe’s team, and those penalties were overturned.
Reacting to the news on social media, Briscoe called it the “biggest points day of my career! We’re back! In all seriousness thank you to NASCAR for giving us the option to show our evidence and huge thank you to everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing who put in countless hours to put everything together.”
Chase Briscoe, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Photo by: NASCAR Media
Why it was overturned
The independent three-person panel consisting of Mr. Dixon Johnston, Mr. Hunter Nickell, and Ms. Cathy Rice have completely overturned NASCAR’s original ruling. Explaining their decision, they stated the following: “The panel believes that the elongation of some of the holes on the number 19 Cup car spoiler base is caused by the process of attaching that specific spoiler base to the rear deck and not modification of the single source part.”
Briscoe joined Joe Gibbs Racing in the off-season and became the first Toyota driver to ever win pole position for the Daytona 500. Before today’s ruling, Briscoe had just three points after clawing out of the negative, but he now rockets up from 46th in the standings to 14th.
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