NASCAR: National Motorsports Appeals Panel upholds Kaulig Racing’s penalty

The three-member panel noted in a statement accompanying its ruling that the teams did breach NASCAR regulations and affirmed several of the punitive sanctions imposed on the team, including the $100,000 fine and four-race ban for crew chief Trent Owens, as well as the loss of ten playoff points.

The panel did, however, cut the 100-point fines for the owner and driver to 75 points apiece. Hunter Nickell, Shawna Robinson, and Steve York were on the appeals panel for this hearing.

Kaulig Racing has one more chance to appeal to the Final Appeals Officer, Bill Mullis. NASCAR assessed fines for five Cup teams on March 15 - all four Hendrick Motorsports teams and the No. 31 Kaulig squad - for the prohibited alteration of hood louvers (vents), which are single-source parts.

Hood louvers function as an outlet point for ducts that transport air from each car's radiator. In a different three-member appeal last Monday, the panel upheld the fines and crew chief suspensions but overturned the owner, driver, and playoff point punishments for all four HMS teams.

With the introduction of the Next Gen cars in the 2022 season, NASCAR revised its penalty system to include significantly severe repercussions for transgressions, including the revocation of playoff eligibility, particularly for changing parts from single-source suppliers.

Much of the new model car's construction is based on single-source provided parts, drastically lowering or eliminating the need for different teams to spend money creating and constructing their own.

Several teams were punished last season for modifying single-source supplier parts, and Joe Gibbs Racing had two cars disqualified at Pocono last year for putting extra tape on the noses of race winners Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.

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Cup team owners boycott scheduled meeting with NASCAR

A large number of NASCAR Cup Series team owners chose not to show up to a previously organized owners' council meeting on Wednesday. On the council, which is one of several that regularly arrange meetings with NASCAR authorities, each corporation in the Cup Series is represented.

While there was no official explanation for the owners' absence, multiple news stories quoted anonymous sources who said it had something to do with the ongoing charter renewal talks between NASCAR and Cup teams.

Both the current NASCAR TV contract and the Cup Series charters expire at the end of the 2024 season. A team's entry into the field and a share of the prize money in each Cup series event are guaranteed by charters, which were first introduced in 2016.

The team negotiating committee, which last year offered NASCAR a seven-point plan to alter its revenue model but was rejected, said it would not issue a formal statement.