Dale Earnhardt Jr. used to be a driver for Hendrick Motorsports but that has not created any bias toward the organization as he remains equal in opinions about all of the teams. This includes the recent developments with Hendrick Motorsports.
The organization partially won its appeal against NASCAR for modifying hood louvers and Earrnahrdt Jr. gave his educated opinion on the situation.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. gives bold opinion on Hendrick Motorsports receiving its points back
Hendrick Motorsports received a penalty for all four cars that included a reduction of 100 owner/driver points, 10 playoff points, a $100,000 fine, and a four-race crew chief suspension due to modified hood louvers before the race at Phoenix Raceway.
However, that was modified as the Appeals Panel admitted the organization broke the rules but decided to return the points and playoff points. The $100,000 fine and four-race crew chief suspension per car were upheld.
This has been a hot topic of conversation and is not a good look as NASCAR teams already believe bias exists toward Hendrick Motorsports, at least in the past. It was even more confusing when Kaulig Racing’s appeal only saw a reduction of 25 points.
Earnhardt Jr. went on his podcast, The Dale Jr. Download, and discussed the appeal results for Hendrick Motorsports. The NASCAR Hall-of-Famer’s thoughts might actually surprise people.
“I don’t know how you get your points back but still get charged financially. I don’t know why the committee chose to do that. I know that (Hendrick Motorsports) had a really, really, really good argument. They had the receipts, they had the texts, the emails, that would basically exonerate them and help someone understand the confusion of how that all came about. With what I know, I don’t know how they didn’t get it all overturned.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Hendrick Motorsports receiving its points back
Earnhardt Jr. clearly knows more than a lot of people and this is the first bit of information that has been released for Hendrick Motorsports’ appeal process. Unfortunately, the Appeals Panel is not transparent so it is hard to develop a strong opinion.
Based on what the JR Motorsports co-owner said, it makes the process even more intriguing. What actually happened and what did Hendrick Motorsports do that broke a rule but didn’t require the points penalty?
This is simply a bigger problem in the grand scheme of things. The Appeals Panel needs a significant overhaul moving forward.
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NASCAR needs to overhaul the appeal process after latest rulings
It is quite simple. The appeal process needs significant changes for a few reasons. One of them includes the most obvious reason that is simply downright confusing to watch from the outside.
The idea of winning an appeal against NASCAR should be harder than it is right now. How likely is it in other sports to win an appeal? Hendrick Motorsports and Kaulig Racing still broke the rules so why are they receiving anything back?
It feels like the Appeals Panel is simply making it up as they go along with the process. This is due to zero transparency which is not right. If there were reasons for changing the penalties, this would not be an issue at all.
Simply put, the appeal process is broken and NASCAR needs to change it. The Appeals Panel has been too nice and breaking the rules at this point feels like an automatic victory for the ones who did such a thing.
If NASCAR teams are going to keep winning appeals, why even penalize them in the first place? It is not NASCAR’s fault either. There is little consistency from the panel and information not being publicly released does not help their case at all.
A significant overhaul needs to be done because teams should not be winning as much as they do right now. NASCAR is supposed to govern the garage area and it feels like they are being held back.