The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team and driver Denny Hamlin have been dealt a major blow to their NASCAR Cup Series championship goals following a Thursday penalty for a major engine violation.
Hamlin and the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 team was docked 75 championship points and 10 playoff points, both in the drivers standings and owners standings, with crew chief Chris Gabehart fined $100,000. The violated regulations were sections 14.7.1.E&F and 14.7.1.1.B&E of the NASCAR rule book.
The first violated rule states race winning engines ‘will be long block sealed by NASCAR and must be completely inspected by NASCAR before the engine is disassembled by the team. If the team chooses the use the long block sealed race winning engine again before being inspected, the engine must be used the same vehicle number the next time it used.’
The second violated rule states that ‘the long block engine assembly seals of a long block sealed engine must not be altered, removed or replaced.’
The third and fourth violated rules state that ‘seals must not be removed without prior approval by NASCAR,’ and ‘if a race winning engine is sealed and presented for post-race inspection at a later date with damaged, altered or missing seals, an L2 Penalty will be assessed.’
Basically, Toyota Racing Development took the engine used to win the race at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 17 and disassembled and rebuilt the engine for re-use without permitting NASCAR to inspect it first. Teams are required to use a previously used engine, for cost containment reasons, in 18 of the 36 event weekends.
Full-time teams are required to give NASCAR a schedule of which events it plans to use a sealed engine prior to the start of the season. Toyota self-reported the infraction because NASCAR would clearly be aware that its seals were broken.
Toyota has also suffered five engine failures this season related to a valve spring supply issue and that may have been a contributing factor to the rebuild as well.
NASCAR issued the following statement:
“In this instance, prior to presenting the engine to NASCAR for inspection, Toyota Racing Development disassembled and rebuilt the No. 11’s Bristol-winning race engine. Per the NASCAR Rule Book, this violation results in an L2 penalty to the race team and driver. Toyota Racing Development self-reported this violation.”
Toyota Racing Development, through president and general manager David Wilson, took full responsibility over the violation.
“As the engine builder for our partner NASCAR Cup Series teams, TRD is solely responsible for the handling and disposition of all our engines pre- and post-race,” Wilson said. “Despite procedures being in place, Denny’s race winning engine from Bristol was mistakenly returned to our Costa Mesa facility, disassembled and rebuilt instead of being torn down and inspected by NASCAR per the rule book.
“Although we know with absolute certainty that the engine was legal and would have passed inspection, we left NASCAR in an impossible position because they were not given the opportunity to properly inspect our engine. We have reviewed our processes and have implemented several additional steps to ensure that this never happens again. TRD takes full responsibility for this grievous mistake, and we apologize to Denny, Chris, Coach Gibbs, the entire JGR organization, NASCAR and our fans.”
What are the consequences?
Hamlin’s win at Bristol no longer counts towards playoff eligibility and tiebreakers. As Hamlin still has two other wins this season, he remains in the playoffs. But in the case of a tiebreaker, he currently has just two eligible wins and not three.
But both the loss of 75 championship points and the 10 playoff points strikes a major blow to his regular season and playoff ambitions. He now has 11 playoff points instead of 21.
He was set to be a top seed, currently second, in the playoffs, but is now provisionally ranked sixth and 103 points behind championship leader Tyler Reddick. The loss of championship points knocks him from third to sixth. This is also important because every driver in the top 10 of the final regular season championship standings earns playoff points as well.
- 15 playoff points
- 10 playoff points
- 8 playoff points
- 7 playoff points
- 6 playoff points
- 5 playoff points
- 4 playoff points
- 3 playoff points
- 2 playoff points
- 1 playoff point
This penalty costs Hamlin 10 playoff points he already had but somewhere close to 10-15 additional points he could have earned in two weeks.
Of course, he still has two more regular season races to accrue playoff points at Daytona and Darlington but his pathway to the championship four loses a significant margin of error.