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As it turns out, the glove that Joey Logano was penalized for wearing last weekend in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway was altered way more than originally thought.
Logano was penalized $10,000 this week in addition to having to start the race on Sunday at the rear of the field, plus having to serve a pass-through pit road penalty at the start of the race, penalties that were effectively negated by a second lap crash anyway.
The first impression of the glove, when the news first broke on Sunday, was that it featured webbing between the middle and ring fingers but there is webbing across every finger. In addition to being a safety violation, because the modification removes its SFI safety rating, it also provided a competitive advantage in qualifying.
As has become customary, NASCAR displayed the illegal piece of equipment in the garage for the entire industry to see and Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran detailed the penalty.
“A piece of SFI safety equipment can not be modified in any way so it’s as delivered,” Moran said. “That’s how SFI approves it and SFI does not approve any glove with any webbing, obviously, for safety reasons.
“We spotted something that was honestly concerning. As you can see, the entire glove is webbed. The reason for that is you can obviously block more air, the drivers do put their hand up against the (window) opening, which we’ve never really had a rule against.
“This obviously goes one step further, and that glove becomes not only a competition problem but it goes one step further because it becomes a safety violation because it’s no longer SFI approved. Regardless of what the materials was made of, regardless of who put it on there, it’s not as delivered, not as tested, an unapproved SFI safety equipment.”
Logano repeatedly stuck his left hand towards the window net and it’s now clear that he was using the webbed glove to deflect air away from the cockpit – an effort to reduce drag and find even a half tenth of a second of speed in time trials.
Logically, a webbed glove is not approved as it could hinder a driver getting out of his car quickly in the case of a fire or other emergency.
NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer detailed the infraction on Tuesday morning during an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“I want to be really clear on this one,” said Sawyer on the air. “If you take exactly what happened on track from a competition perspective and trying to enhance the performance on the race track … Obviously, we see time and time again at superspeedways and other events, drivers stick their hand out the window that’s not something we’ve been all that alarmed about.
“When you take it to the level that you have modified one of the safety equipment, gloves in particular and then using that, the penalty at the track was based off that. We disallowed the qualifying time and sent the 22 to the back and sent them to a pass through.
“The next step is when you look at safety equipment. we look at it very closely and take it very seriously. There have been numerous meetings over time about safety of the car and the equipment and the driver. When you take it and alter it, that is something we (discussed) …”
“The reason I want to be really clear on that is that what happened at the race track and the way it was handled was based on performance and using that device. Now altering a SSI certified safety piece of apparel, that’s a topic we (discussed) …”
Specifically, this was a violation of rule 14.3.1.1 in the NASCAR rule book that states all safety equipment must be worn as manufactured and that the garments must be SFI safety rating approved.
Illegal Stewart Haas parts also displayed
Additionally, the Stewart Haas Racing No. 10 and 41 teams, driven by Noah Gragson and Ryan Preece respectively were assessed the loss of 35 points for an unapproved roof air deflectors.
Moran detailed these infractions and displayed the parts at Atlanta on Saturday as well.
Additionally, NASCAR displays the confiscated roof rails from the Nos. 10 and 41. pic.twitter.com/4JTJxfxBwO
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 2, 2024
Keep in mind, these are team made parts, but they have to meet the CAD drawings in the NASCAR rule book and these did not.
“If you look at these, you’ll see that they’ve got like a press mark,” Moran said. “They’ve been pressed. That dent is not supposed to be there. These are supposed to be flat…
“And that’s not done from tightening any bolts or anything else. The head of the bolt is not that big. So, these are pressed so they stand proud on top of the greenhouse, which is a problem.
“We don’t get into why they’re like that. They were only on the right side of those two vehicles but they certainly don’t meet the CAD files so that’s what the penalty was for.”
Preece falls to 36th in the championship standings with zero points, 47 points below the playoff cutline, whereas before he was just 12 out. Grgason falls to 43rd in the championship standings with negative six points, 53 points below the playoff cutline, whereas he was 18 points out.
The team did not appeal.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.