The National Motorsports Appeals Panel announced that it was upholding almost all of the penalties issued to Kaulig Racing and Justin Haley for modifying a hood louver before qualifying at Phoenix last month.
Haley and Kaulig were docked 100 points each by NASCAR over the issue but the appeals panel downgraded that to 75 points each Wednesday.
However, they upheld all of the other penalties, including a loss of 10 playoff points for Haley and the No. 31 Kaulig Racing team, a $100,000 fine to crew chief Trent Owens and a four-race suspension for Owens.
The appeals panel, which consists of Hunter Nickell, Shawna Robinson, and Steve York, did not offer an explanation for why it altered the penalty slightly.
Adding to the confusion is that this comes a week after a different panel rescinded similar penalties of 100 points and 10 playoff points to Hendrick Motorsports’ drivers and teams over modification to hood louvers discovered before practice at Phoenix.
The NASCAR world is looking for answers as to how these two situations played out so differently.
You can’t blame NASCAR for this. If anything they tried to be consistent by giving the same penalty to all. NASCAR doesn’t run the appeals process, doesn’t pick the people, and there are different people. But for goodness sake, there needs to be a lot more transparency,” said The Comeback’s Phillip Bupp.
“This is going to go over just as well as if I let my daughter have ice cream before dinner but not my son,” Action Network’s PJ Walsh said.
“Can we just scrap the appeals panel completely? what a joke,” said a NASCAR fan.
“This is ridiculous. If it’s the same issue Hendrick had, it should be the same ruling. I’d love to get some sort of explanation why they aren’t the same, but I’m not gonna hold my breath. Hard to ignore the cries of favoritism for sure. And my guy drives for Hendrick,” said another NASCAR fan.
“Reminder the appeals panel is not NASCAR. It is an independent group chosen to hear and rule on these appeals,” said broadcaster Pete Pistone. “Last week’s ruling in the Hendrick case was already very murky. Today’s Kaulig news makes the whole deal more unclear. Transparency is critical.”
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.