Getty Justin Haley races at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The Final Appeals Officer has made his decision regarding the L2-Level penalties issued to Kaulig Racing and the No. 31 team for unapproved modifications to a single source part (louver). The team will get all of its points back but will still pay a fine and lose a crew chief for four weeks.
The Final Appeals Officer, Bill Mullis, met with both Kaulig Racing and NASCAR on April 18 and heard the appeal of penalties issued on March 15, 2023. However, there was an interesting twist. NASCAR actually requested that Mullis make changes to the penalty to match those issued to Hendrick Motorsports after a previous appeal.
“In the interest of fairness, NASCAR has requested that I remove the driver/owner race and playoff points from the penalty to Kaulig Racing,” Mullis said in a statement. “I have agreed to this request, per the Rule Book. During its opening remarks, NASCAR stated it believes that the violations did occur, the penalties were appropriate and the three-person appeals panel ruled correctly.
“But, because the Kaulig infraction closely mirrored that of Hendrick Motorsports [modified louver at Phoenix Raceway], NASCAR requested I rule in the same manner as the three-person appeals panel following the Hendrick Motorsports appeal on March 29. The information I heard in the room this morning created an overwhelming and unique circumstance. In fairness to the team and sanctioning body, as NASCAR documented in its remarks, this request is fully in the interest of fairness and consistency, and I agree.”
The result of this decision is that Justin Haley will get back the 100 driver points and the 10 playoff points that he lost in the original penalty. The No. 31 team will get back 100 owner points and 10 playoff points. Crew chief Trent Owens will serve his four-race suspension while paying a $100,000 fine.
NASCAR Provided an Explanation After the Appeal
GettyJustin Haley’s pit crew changes tires during a stop.
There were many discussions after Kaulig Racing’s first appeal, which resulted in the 100-point penalty only going down to 75 points. The reason is that Hendrick Motorsports appealed the same penalty the week prior, and all four of its teams got their points back.
The lack of consistency is something that NASCAR wanted to address during the 2023 Cup Series season. The sanctioning body called the two different appeal outcomes a bad look, and it made changes to the appeals process so that the panel and Final Appeals Officer could no longer completely remove one portion of the penalty while upholding another.
“NASCAR believes that Kaulig Racing committed the violations documented in the penalty notice, that the penalties were appropriate, and that the three-person appeals panel ruled correctly when hearing the Kaulig appeal on April 5,” NASCAR said in a statement. “However, in the interest of treating all competitors fairly, NASCAR today requested that the Final Appeals Officer remove the race and playoff points from the penalty.
“The Kaulig and Hendrick Motorsports violations involved the same modified part found during the same race weekend, and with fairness and consistency top of mind, NASCAR requested that the FAO match the final Hendrick Motorsports penalty. NASCAR believes that the updates made to the Rule Book will address similar issues in the future and keep its promise to the owners for strict penalties when single-source parts are modified. We are pleased with the swift resolution to today’s appeal, appreciate Bill Mullis’ ruling, and now look forward to this weekend’s events at Talladega Superspeedway.”
Haley Makes a Significant Move After the Appeal
When NASCAR originally issued the L2-Level penalties to the No. 31 team, Haley dropped to the bottom of the championship standings. He had negative points, and he had no path to the playoffs other than winning.
Now that the No. 31 team has its points back, Haley is now in a much better position. He is now 25th in the standings with 145 points. He is one point ahead of teammate AJ Allmendinger and 17 points behind Todd Gilliland. More importantly, Haley is 61 points behind Chris Buescher, who holds the final spot above the playoff cutline.
Regarding today’s final appeal result:
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The path to the playoffs is more manageable, but it is not easy. Haley still needs to pass such drivers as Bubba Wallace (22nd), Austin Dillon (21st), Austin Cindric (19th), Michael McDowell (18th), and Daniel Suarez (17th).
All of these drivers have proven capable of winning in recent seasons, and they could do so once again to take one of the available playoff spots. Rookie Ty Gibbs is also 20th in the standings, and he continues to gain experience in a car that could regularly contend for wins.