Listen to this article
On March 15, NASCAR issued penalties to five Cup teams – all four Hendrick Motorsports teams and the No. 31 team from Kaulig Racing – for the unapproved modification of hood louvers (vents) which are single-source parts.
All points penalties against Hendrick were rescinded on appeal, but a different three-person panel mostly upheld the penalties against Kaulig. The original 100-point penalty was merely reduced to 75 points on April 5.
Team president Chris Rice spoke out against the decision and called the penalties ‘devastating’ to the small organization.
Now, Final Appeals Officer Bill Mullis has rescinded the remaining 75-point penalty, as well as the loss of ten playoff points.
At NASCAR’s request
In an interesting development, this decision came at the request of NASCAR who asked for the points penalties to be erased “in the interest of treating all competitors fairly.” Obviously, this is in response to the HMS decision.
Full statement: “NASCAR believes that Kaulig Racing committed the violations documented in the penalty notice, tha …