NASCAR issued its penalty report following the sport’s triple-header weekend at Martinsville Speedway, where the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team piloted by Austin Dillon in the Cup Series headlined the report.
Per the report, NASCAR penalized the No. 3 team for an L1-level infraction after it was discovered that the team violated Sections 14.6.1 A&B from the NASCAR Rule Book pertaining to the underwing assembly mounting and underwing stay assembly hardware. The infraction was discovered after NASCAR took Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, following the Martinsville event this past Sunday, April 16, where Dillon finished 12th.
As a result, Dillon and his team have been penalized 60 points and five NASCAR Cup Series Playoff points. In addition, crew chief Keith Rodden has been issued a two-race suspension and a $75,000 fine. The points penalty dropped Dillon from 21st to 29th in the regular-season standings as he went from a 24-point deficit to an 84-point deficit to make the top-16 cutline for the 2023 Cup Playoffs.
NASCAR also issued two-race suspensions for crew members Chris Jackson and David Smith from Live Fast Team Motorsports Racing Team for the loss of a wheel on the track during the Martinsville event, where the right-rear wheel came off of the team’s No. 78 entry piloted by Anthony Alfredo nearing the final quarter-mark of the event. Alfredo proceeded to finish 35th of the 36-car field.
In the Xfinity Series, crew chiefs Mike Bumgarner, Jeff Meendering and Mike Scearce were fined $5,000 apiece for lug-nut violations for their respective entries and teams following the Xfinity event at Martinsville that occurred this past Saturday, April 15.
There were no penalties issued for any NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series drivers or teams during the series’ event that occurred this past Friday, April 14.
The next event on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ first of two-scheduled visits to Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama. The event is scheduled to occur this upcoming Sunday, April 23, at 3 p.m. ET on FOX. It will take place a day after the Xfinity Series hosts its lone annual visit to the superspeedway venue on Saturday, April 22, at 4 p.m. ET on FS1.
