NASCAR loosens its grip on Martin Truex Jr.’s former ally amid Chase Briscoe’s deepening JGR struggle

NASCAR has softened its stance on Martin Truex Jr.'s former ally and Chase Briscoe's JGR crew chief, James Small. The #19 Toyota's crew chief was suspended for four races after a big infraction in the NextGen machine was discovered during the Daytona 500 race week.

Briscoe embarked on his Joe Gibbs Racing debut, claiming the Daytona 500 pole on his first attempt - a feat that Truex Jr., despite his noteworthy accolades, never achieved for Mr. Joe Gibbs. Moreover, the #19 driver secured a fourth-place finish on the 2.5-mile superspeedway, opening the season on a high.

However, three days after the memorable weekend, the disaster struck. NASCAR levied a crushing L2 penalty for illegal modifications to the Camry's spoiler. As a result, Briscoe lost 100 regular season and 10 playoff points, while his team was hit with a $100,000 fine, docked 100 owner points, and stripped 10 playoff points.

James Small, who previously worked with Truex Jr. and contributed to eight of his 34 Cup Series wins, was suspended for four races. He served his first race suspension during the Atlanta Motor Speedway race.

However, the team has appealed the verdict, with the matter to be addressed by the National Motorsports Appeals Panel on Wednesday, March 5. In the meantime, NASCAR has preliminary judged to permit him to call the shots in the upcoming Circuit of The Americas race, as reported by Bob Pockrass.

"Suspension of crew chief James Small has been deferred until appeal is heard so Small will be allowed at COTA. @NASCARONFOX."

Briscoe will begin the COTA race ranked 45th, the last on the Cup Series roster.

Chase Briscoe expresses his feelings about the long-term effect of James Small's penalty

Despite starting the season on a high for JGR, Chase Briscoe's momentum came to an abrupt halt following NASCAR's ruling. The penalty pushed the #19 Toyota driver to -67 points and he entered the Ambetter Health 400 in Atlanta ranked last. Briscoe salvaged a 21st-place finish beginning the race from P25, collecting 16 points to bring the tally down to -51 points.

Amid Small's penalty, the JGR driver outlined that though a driver can recover from a handful of DNFs throughout the regular season and still make the playoffs, losing a key asset like crew chief, for four race weekends could prove more detrimental.

“You kind of had like, three or four times where you can have a DNF throughout the season and still make the playoffs. But if we don’t win the appeal, I already used those up. I don’t have any weekends that I can have, you know, bad. So, yeah, we’ll definitely change things, but you’re still gonna have to win if you want to be a championship contender," Chase Briscoe said.

Since NASCAR's rule allows a regular season race winner, an automatic entry in the playoffs, Chase Briscoe pressed upon triumphing in a race to safeguard his championship prospects.