NASCAR expands penalties for egregious violations during Chase

The word “encumbered” has been added to the NASCAR lingo, just as the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoffs are set to begin.

NASCAR announced Wednesday an update to its rulebook that deals with post-race infractions — missing lug nuts and the failure to make it through the laser inspection platform — which will now be viewed as “encumbered finishes.”

If a winning car is ruled to have an encumbered finish, the benefits for a victory — automatic advancement in the Chase or even the championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway — would be canceled out. The result would still stand in the official rundown — it’s not a disqualification — but the win would not count toward the Chase or championship.

In order for the encumbered finish rule to come into play, a car must have at least three missing lug nuts — not just one, as has been the penalty for most of this season — and fail the laser platform by a significant amount (to a greater degree than any car has this year).

To rise to the level of an infraction being considered an “encumbered” finish, it would have to “be egregious, it will be deliberate, it won’t be an accident,” NASCAR senior vice president of competition Scott Miller said. “That’s what we’re trying to guard against.”

Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, said race teams had been asking NASCAR to clarify the two rules, which were both implemented this season, before the Chase began.

One missing lug nut will no longer result in a crew chief suspension, which had been the case for the regular season. Instead, it will result in a fine of between $10,000-$20,000.

Two missing lug nuts will result in a crew chief suspension, a loss of 15 points and a $20,000 fine.

When it gets to three missing lug nuts, NASCAR will judge it as enough of a competitive advantage to strip the benefits of the win (advancement in the Chase or the championship). In addition, the crew chief will be suspended for three races and receive a $65,000 fine.

There’s a similar scale for varying degrees of failing the laser inspection station.

“As a sanctioning body, we take our job very seriously to ensure a level playing field,” Miller said. “We wanted to make sure the door wasn’t opened for the teams to take advantage of the rules we’ve had in place for the first 26 (races). The level of infraction it takes to end up with an encumbered finish, we haven’t seen that. It would be egregious from what we’ve seen before.”

O’Donnell argued NASCAR is not over-officiating the championship and compared it to the last play of a football game.

“They don’t allow everybody to hold as much as you want and (still) call it a touchdown,” he said. “There was almost an incentive to really violate the rules and the consequences didn’t match up.

“We don’t expect to ever make this call. We just wanted to put this in place so hopefully we don’t ever have to.”

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