NASCAR lays down the law by inflicting costly penalties on William Byron and Ty Gibbs

NASCAR has firmly shut the door on driver antics under caution-flag periods as well as bumping on pit-road after last weekend's AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 500. The aftermath of the 500-mile-long race saw two drivers, namely Hendrick Motosport's William Byron and 23XI Racing's Kurt Busch substitute Ty Gibbs, receive hefty penalties after the race in Fort Worth, Texas ended.

The two drivers were penalized for separate incidents during the race, with Byron facing the governing body's reprimand for spinning Denny Hamlin out in a late caution period. The #24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 driver loses 25 driver and team points as a result along with a $50,000 fine. Byron drops from being 17 points above the cutoff for the Round of 8 to 10th on the list as he heads into the Yellawood 500 this Sunday. Hendrick Motorsports also indicated their plans on appealing the penalty earlier this week.

23XI Racing's Ty Gibbs received a slap on the wrist for banging doors with Ty Dillon on the pit road, which caused Dillon to veer dangerously close to crew members working on another car in a nearby pit stall. Gibbs did not receive any driver points deductions as he does not gather any points in the Cup Series, being an Xfinity Series regular. 23XI Racing, however, was stripped of 25 owner points.

NASCAR claimed not to have seen the incident between Denny Hamlin and William Byron during the race and did not allow Hamlin to re-take his original position during the caution period. This confused the fraternity and the resulting penalty came rather as a cover-up to their earlier blunders. Byron and Hamlin ultimately finished in P7 and P10 respectively.

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NASCAR Vice President explains the course of action if the Byron-Hamlin incident was realized during the race

Scott Miller, senior vice president at NASCAR, elaborated on what the governing body would have done had the yellow flag incident between William Byron and Denny Hamlin been realized by the officials during the race and said:

“If we had seen that good enough to react to it in real-time, which we should’ve, no excuse there, there would probably have been two courses of action. One, would’ve meant to put (Denny) Hamlin back where he was, or the other would be to have, make William (Byron) start in the back.”

Watch the complete interview below:

NASCAR will go live from Talladega Superspeedway this Sunday for the Yellawood 500 at 2:00 pm ET on the USA Network.