On May 1st, Penske Racing appealed the penalties that were levied against them at Texas Motor Speedway. However, they would lose the case as the three person panel upheld the penalties.
“The panel heard from both sides,” NASCAR spokesperson Kerry Tharp said. “Based upon these discussions, the panel has unanimously decided to uphold the original penalties that were assessed by NASCAR on April 17th of this year.”
The panel consisted of Pocono Raceway President Brandon Igdalsky, NASCAR Broadcast executive Paul Brooks and Bowman-Gray stadium president Dale Pinilis.
Roger Penske has said that his team will take their appeal to the next level, appealing to Chief Appellate Officer John Middlebrook.
“Obviously, a disappointing outcome with the panel,” Penske said. “We met with the panel for a good four to five hours; it was a good process. I feel that we have a good case and as we’re allowed to under the NASCAR rules in the NASCAR rulebook to appeal to the next level and we have notified NASCAR that we will appeal this ruling today to the next level. Based on that, I can’t make any other comments before they are under the confidentiality agreement based on the process in the rulebook.”
Penske went on to say that the process is fair on all sides.
“Obviously the information that we presented to the panel they determined that they were uphold the violation,” Penske continued. “We will obviously move on to the next step as I said.”
Penske stated that crew chiefs Paul Wolfe and Todd Gordon will be at the track this weekend as they are allowed under the rules in the rulebook.
During pre-race inspection at Texas Motor Speedway, Penske Racing was found in violation of NASCAR’s rear-end suspension policy. Reports have stated that the rear-end housings were attached in a fashion that they might shift the rear-ends of the cars into yaw during competition.
Section 20-12 of the rulebook states, “All front end and rear end suspension mounts with mounting hardware assembled must have single round mounting holes that are the correct size for the fastener being used. All front end and rear end suspension mounts and mounting hardware must not allow movement or realignment of any suspension component beyond normal rotation or suspension travel.”
As a result, both the No. 2 and No. 22 teams were assessed the following penalties:
- Crew chief Paul Wolfe has been fined $100,000 and suspended from NASCAR until the completion of the next six NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship points events (including the non-points Sprint All-Star Race) and placed on probation until Dec. 31.
- Car chief Jerry Kelley, team engineer Brian Wilson and team manager Travis Geisler (serves as team manager for both the No. 2 and No. 22 cars) have been suspended from NASCAR until the completion of the next six NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship points events (including the non-points Sprint All-Star Race) and placed on probation until Dec. 31.
- The loss of 25 championship driver (Brad Keselowski) and 25 championship owner (Roger Penske) points.
- Crew chief Todd Gordon has been fined $100,000 and suspended from NASCAR until the completion of the next six NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship points events (including the non-points Sprint All-Star Race) and placed on probation until Dec. 31.
- Car chief Raymond Fox and team engineer Samuel Stanley have been suspended from NASCAR until the completion of the next six NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship points events (including the non-points Sprint All-Star Race) and placed on probation until Dec. 31.
- The loss of 25 championship driver (Joey Logano) and 25 championship owner (Walt Czarnecki) points.
