NASCAR revealed the penalty report following this past weekend’s Xfinity-Cup Series actions at Phoenix Raceway between March 8-9.
The only pair of penalties that were issued were towards Joe Gibbs Racing’s (JGR) Nos. 18 and 20 Toyota Supra teams in the Xfinity Series division. Both of the team’s entries were found to have violated Sections 8.8.10.4a of the NASCAR Rule Book that pertained to a lug nut found to not be properly installed on the entries following this past Saturday’s event at Phoenix.
As a result of the loose lug nut penalty, JGR’s Nos. 18 and 20 teams were each fined $5,000.
The No. 18 JGR Toyota entry, which is being piloted by rookie William Sawalich, is coming off a 13th-place result this past weekend at Phoenix after Sawalich rallied from starting at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his entry prior to the event. Meanwhile, the No. 20 JGR Toyota entry, which is piloted by Brandon Jones, is coming off a third-place run at Phoenix. The result marked Jones’ first top-three result of the 2025 campaign as he is coming off respective finishes of 37th, 13th and 30th to commence this season.
With their respective finishes at Phoenix, Sawalich is ranked in 12th place in the driver’s standings, where he trails points leader Jesse Love by 51 points, while Jones is ranked in 20th place and trails the lead by 67 points.
There were no additional penalties levied on any of the Cup Series teams. In addition, no Cup entries were taken to the R&D center in Concord, North Carolina, for further inspection.
The NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series teams and competitors will return to action next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway along with the Craftsman Truck Series. The Truck Series will commence next weekend’s triple-header feature at Vegas on Friday, March 14, at 9 p.m. ET on FS1. The Xfinity Series will follow suit on Saturday, March 15, at 4:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network while the Cup Series will cap off the weekend on Sunday, March 16, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
