NASCAR issued stiff penalties Wednesday to each of the Hendrick Motorsports’ four Cup Series teams and the No. 31 team of Kaulig Racing for modifying their cars with unapproved parts last weekend at Phoenix Raceway.
NASCAR suspended each of the five crew chiefs for four races and fined them $100,000. Each team also lost 100 team and driver points and 10 playoff points.
The penalties involved hood louvers that the cars had on Friday in practice sessions. The parts were replaced before Sunday’s race.
The affected cars for Hendrick were the No. 5 Chevrolet driven by Kyle Larson, Josh Berry’s No. 9, the No. 24 of William Byron and the No. 48 of Alex Bowman, as well as the No. 31 of Justin Haley of the Kaulig team.
Berry, the substitute driver for the injured Chase Elliott, was not docked any driver points.
Byron won the race in Phoenix, Larson came in fourth, Bowman ninth and Berry 10th.
The Hendrick team said it would appeal the penalties but will not ask for the suspensions to be deferred.
–Field Level Media
