In the latest episode of the NASCAR Hauler Talk podcast, a show that details technical and officiating decisions from the perspective of the Sanctioning Body, NASCAR managing director of communications Mike Forde offered a respectful rebuttal to the points raised by Parker Kligerman and Henderson Motorsports over their Daytona disqualification.
First, as both sides have pointed out, the officiating procedure for inspecting heights changed in 2023 after a Matt Crafton disqualification was overturned in May 2022.
Forde said they have since inspected 170 trucks over the past two plus seasons and Kligerman was the first to fail heights since the new procedures.
“If there is damage to the rear or the front, we do not measure them because we recognize there is race damage,” Forde said. “We”re not going to fail someone who has significant race damage but that wasn’t the case with the 75.”
Force detailed how when a truck is rolled up to the inspection line, they are allowed to set air pressure to pre-race inspection levels, top off fuel to get back to pre-inspection weight, unhook shocks and set the nose whereever they want.
“The teams can lower the nose, lift the nose, measure it, roll it up, do the sticks and if they’re in the red, fail, and if they’re in the green or yellow, they pass,” Forde said. “The 75 truck failed.”
Where things get messy, as both parties detailed, is the process for what they were allowed to do.
“The team members suggest that we told they had to lift up on the nose and our inspector said he did not say that,” Forde said.
The chief inspector, Bradley Houk has been in this role for six seasons and has been at NASCAR since 2011. Forde said Houk ‘would not veer off course that significantly’ but did explain a procedural change in response.
“Previously, what we did was verbalize to the team, ‘Here’s what you are allowed to do.’ The procedure is now going to be written out and handed to the team'” Forde said. “So, we’re out of the verbal business. It’s all going to be in writing—just tightening up that area so that if a crew chief isn’t available because of health reasons, or whatever the reason is, they at least have this in writing.”
Further complicating the process is that Henderson Motorsports crew chief and general manager Chris Carrier was in the media center while this was taking place.
Truck chief Tom Clavette was suspended for the weekend earlier in the day due to repeated inspection failures and the only remaining senior team representative opted into the press conference as detailed by NASCAR senior director of racing communications Amanda Ellis.
“This was an incident where we did not require Chris to come into the media center, but it was my understanding that they wanted to come in,” Ellis said. “I’m not sure exactly how that transpired, but ultimately, he came in, answered the questions, and did the things that are involved in the media availability post-event.
“But ultimately, that’s not a requirement, and if at any point there was a conversation where he needed to leave that stage or go to tech, he would have been allowed to do so.”
The original posts from this story can be found below.
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Chris Carrier, the crew chief for Parker Kligerman and the Henderson Motorsports No. 75 in the NASCAR Truck Series, has issued a strongly worded statement over their disqualification in the season opening race at Daytona earlier in the month.
Effectively, Carrier claims that a gaffe in post-race inspection procedure is the only reason they were disqualified, while remaining adamant that his team was wrongfully stripped of a major victory.
Carrier said his truck ‘was not measured correctly and was not held to the same post-race inspection procedures as the other trucks.’
Corey Heim was declared the winner of the race within an hour of the finish. Kligerman was notified upon exiting his post-race press conference in the media center that night.
“In our minds, we won this race — fair and square,” Carrier wrote. “There were no illegal parts, and we never stepped outside the rules. No matter what, we take pride and joy in what we achieved. We believe the post-race failure resulted from a misunderstanding between two NASCAR inspectors and our team, which led to our road crew to follow incorrect instructions on the height sticks process. There was no malicious intent; however, we firmly believe our truck was not measured correctly and was not held to the same post-race inspection procedures as the other trucks.
“Due to this miscommunication, our front end measured an inch higher than necessary to clear heights, which in turn lowered our rear end below its minimum clearance — resulting in the disqualification. Had our truck been inspected the same way as everyone else’s, it would have passed.”
Henderson Motorsports appealed the disqualification but the National Motorsports Appeals panel upheld the decision and issued the following statement:
“The panel confirms it is more likely than not a rules violation did occur and the disqualification penalties in Rule 10.5.2.4 necessitate a race disqualification.”
Kligerman speaks
The part-time racer and broadcaster also tackled the topic on Tuesday in an episode of his ‘The Money Lap’ podcast with best friend and veteran racer Landon Cassill.
He chalked it up to more of a miscommunication but also took exception to NASCAR not having Carrier be present for inspection, which also led to some procedural wires getting crossed up.
“We went to Victory Lane, went to the Media Canter, Chris was asked to come to the Media Center, my crew chief, he is the only full-time employee at Henderson Motorsports, and during this time the truck went through tech, and this is where it gets interesting,” Kligerman said. “I was like ‘the crew chief wasn’t there’, and that’s another thing you find out, you don’t need to have the crew chief there to go through tech – which is something I will be requesting that NASCAR investigate that because it’s kind of crazy, especially on the smaller teams, to not have a person of authority there when the car/truck is going through tech, really is a tough thing to swallow.”
Carrier was asked to go to the media center as a representative of the team but that left the truck to go through inspection with just their band of part-time help.
“When you get done with the race and you’re going through tech, the first thing you do is the heights and this is where it gets very muddy,” Kligerman said. “They changed the post-race process back in February 2023 in a bulletin to the teams, where you would be allowed to unhook the shocks and measure your front end to the level you wanted, which now in the post-race can be 5.5 inches on the front, so it can be an inch lower than pre-race, and you get a third of an inch in the rear more tolerance to be lower than pre-race.”
Kligerman believes very strongly that their truck would have passed inspection had they been allowed to set the height in inspection.
“What we’ve now discovered, is that when you set and measure the front end then you can no longer touch it once it goes on the height sticks, so you have to hope it’s correct, and what happened with our team was because Chris wasn’t there, and there was no person of authority, our mechanics have all said they were told to unhook the shocks and lift the front end up, which is not the procedure.”
He says that all four road crew members did as they were directed by Seth Kramlich and his crew.
“That’s where it was a communication error,” Kligerman said.”It was a lack of knowledge on our part, of course, on how this happens or how this process is done and that’s why when I say that this truck was legal when it raced, yes, it was, and it would have been legal had it been given the chance to set the front end properly – yeah, follow the procedure, we just didn’t follow the procedure.
“And in their defense, we are the first since February 2023 – when this rule was created and put in place – we are the first to fail heights through this procedure. Now, we also are a rare case, just to point some numbers to that, I believe (Tommy Joe Martins tweeted) that there are only 12 part-time teams in NASCAR, and we are the only one in the last decade that wins races, so we’re the only ones that go through this thing.”
Kligerman kept the flag and remains proud of the accomplishment and what they were able to celebrate in the moment.
“We know now that moving forward, we have to be more up-to-date on all of those things and it’s disappointing,” Kligerman said. “It’s the biggest win of my life, biggest win of the Henderson’s, you know, we’ll always have the memories, we’ll always know what it’s like to win there and I do think for us we will hopefully be better going forward.”
