CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Kaulig Racing-Hendrick Motorsports-NASCAR saga came to a resolution on Tuesday — but NASCAR made a certain point abundantly clear:
This shouldn’t happen again.
Final appeals officer Bill Mullis announced that Kaulig Racing, which was found guilty of modifying a single-source supplied part, would have all of the points it lost restored. The decision was made “in the interest of fairness.” After all, this no-points-penalty sentence is the same one Hendrick Motorsports served when it was caught with the same infraction.
The decision was made at the behest of the sanctioning body, Mullis said in his appeals explanation.
“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 sequence of events leading up to Tuesday’s verdict went as follows:
— March 15: NASCAR found Hendrick Motorsports and Kaulig Racing guilty of “the unapproved modification of a single-source vendor supplied party,” per NASCAR’s penalty sheet. The parts in question were the hood louvers that the sanctioning body seized before the Cup race at Phoenix Raceway. Both teams violated the same rule. NASCAR assessed penalties of 100 points and 10 playoff points for each full-time driver involved — which included William Byron (the 24 car), Kyle Larson (the 5 car) and Alex Bowman (the 48 car) of Hendrick and Justin Haley of Kaulig Racing.
— March 29: Hendrick Motorsports made its appeal to the National Motorsports Appeals Panel (comprised of three industry experts). That appeal went well for HMS. The panel said that the team would have Hendrick’s points restored — which took away the most important penalty for what NASCAR considered one of its worst offenses.
— April 5: Kaulig Racing made its appeal to the National Motorsports Appeals Panel (comprised of three different industry experts). The appeal saw Kaulig have some of its points restored, but not all of them. The uneven penalties between Kaulig and Hendrick — who both committed the same violation — illustrated what many throughout the garage area have felt for a while: that Hendrick Motorsports is above the law.
— Also on April 5: NASCAR made amendments to its rule book try to prevent this from happening again. Among those changes: NASCAR has the right to publish appeals panel/final appeals officer justification for modifying or rescinding a penalty, and the NMAP/FAO “may not completely remove any element of the originally assessed penalty provided in the penalty notice as defined in Rule Book Section 10.5.2 Determination of Penalties.”
— April 6: Kaulig Racing announced it would move the case to the final appeals officer.
— April 18: The aforementioned result.
NASCAR shared via statement that this wasn’t an ideal situation, but the sanctioning body hopes the changes in the rule book as well as Tuesday’s ruling “will address similar issues in the future and keep its promise to the owners for strict penalties when single-source parts are modified.”
“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 wrote. “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 (modified louver at Phoenix Raceway), and with fairness and consistency top of mind, NASCAR requested that the FAO match the final Hendrick Motorsports penalty.
The sanctioning body added: “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.”
Kaulig Racing released a statement following Tuesday’s results.
“Kaulig Racing is pleased with the ruling of the final appeals officer to amend the original L2 penalty issued by NASCAR following the confiscation of a louver at Phoenix Raceway,” the race team wrote. “Regarding these unique circumstances, it means the world to us as an organization that the sanctioning body is working hard to ensure fairness and consistency across the board within our sport.”
