The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season just got a whole lot more challenging for Brad Keselowski and his No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford team. And, although it’s early in the season, their playoff hopes suffered a monster blow.
Going into this season, NASCAR made it clear penalties would be stiffer as deterrents with potentially serious and long-term implications if teams played with the Next Gen car and modified the parts supplied by the universal vendors. And that’s what happened to RFK Racing’s No. 6 team following Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
For the “[m]odification of a single source supplied part” on the No. 6 car at Atlanta, NASCAR announced Thursday crew chief Matt McCall is being fined $100,000 and suspended for the next four races, and the team is losing 100 owner points, 100 driver points and 10 playoff points.
Although NASCAR noted which sections of the rulebook the team violated — Sections 14.1 C&D Overall Assembled Vehicle Rules and 14.5 A&D Body, which both relate to modification — it’s unclear exactly what part of the car was modified and how. But the rule violations were identified Thursday during the teardown inspection at NASCAR’s R&D center.
So beyond the specific unknowns about what was modified, what does all this mean?
Obviously, Keselowski and co. will be without McCall for the next four races, which are at Circuit of The Americas, Richmond Raceway, Martinsville Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway for the dirt race.
And while that’s obviously an immediate disadvantage to the team, the more serious implication here is the team losing 100 driver points, along with 10 playoff points.
The No. 6 team has yet to earn any playoff points through the first five races of 2022, so it’s now at -10, which will be more of a problem down the road in September when the 10-race playoffs begin — should Keselowski’s team make it in.
However, more importantly, after a 12th-place finish at Atlanta, Keselowski was 16th in the driver standings with 122 points. Now with the penalty, he dropped to 35th in the standings, making him the lowest ranked full-time driver in the field.
Falling that far in the standings significantly decreases Keselowski and his team’s chance of earning a playoff spot based on points — finishing the 26-race regular season among the top-16 drivers. It might actually be nearly impossible for them to “points” their way in, meaning Keselowski has to win a race to lock himself into the playoffs.
But even that might not be enough.
To be eligible as a title contender in the postseason, a driver technically needs more than a checkered flag. They also need to be among the top-30 drivers in points at the end of the regular season in August.
So Keselowski has 21 races to earn his first win of the season while also climbing into the top 30 in the standings. He’s now 34 points away from 30th.
In 12 completed full-time seasons, Keselowski has won at least one race every year with the exception of his rookie season in 2010. He’s also made the playoffs every year since 2014 when the current postseason structure was initially adopted.
Now, thanks to this monster early-season penalty, those streaks could be in serious trouble.
