NASCAR announced earlier this week a tougher stance on inspection failures in 2019. If a race-winning car fails post-race inspection, the win will be taken away and awarded to the second-place finisher, as long as the second-place car passes inspection.
Previously drivers/teams kept wins, despite failed inspections, but playoff benefits of the wins, such as playoff berths and playoff points, were stripped. Kevin Harvick's race car failed inspection after two of his eight Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wins last year, once during the regular season and, again, during the playoffs. But he was able to advance to the championship four at the 2018 season-finale because of other wins and his position in the points standings. Joey Logano, though, failed to make the 2017 playoffs despite a regular-season win at Richmond Raceway, because his car failed inspection after that race.
Also, the sanctioning body has vowed to speed up the inspection process. Previously, cars underwent a quick post-race inspection at the track, but the top-two finishers and a car chosen at random were transported to NASCAR's Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C., for a more thorough tear-down inspection, the results of which were announced days later. Beginning in 2019, those tear-down inspections of the top-two finishers will be conducted at the track, immediately after the race.
“Our industry understands the need to focus on what happens on the race track,” NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell said. “We cannot allow inspection and penalties to continue to be a prolonged storyline. Race vehicles are expected to adhere to the rule book from the opening of the garage to the checkered flag.”
NASCAR also announced plans to stiffen penalties for pre-qualifying and pre-race inspections. If a car fails pre-qualifying inspections three times, its driver will not be allowed a qualifying attempt. Also, team members will be ejected from the track's garage area and the team will be docked practice time.
If a car fails pre-race inspection multiple times, the car will start the race in the back instead of in the position in which it qualified. Three failures of pre-race inspection will result in a pit-road, pass-through penalty at the start of the race.
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