Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team have been hit with a pricy penalty after Toyota tore down an engine before it could be inspected by NASCAR following Hamlin's victory at Bristol Motor Speedway way back in March.
NASCAR explained the L2-level penalty was issued for failing to meet NASCAR's engine seal requirements with the following statement, noting that Toyota reported the issue themselves: “Each race-winning engine must be inspected by NASCAR once the race team determines that its life cycle is complete. In this instance, prior to presenting the engine to NASCAR for inspection, Toyota Racing Development disassembled and rebuilt the No. 11’s Bristol-winning race engine. Per the NASCAR Rule Book, this violation results in an L2 penalty to the race team and driver. Toyota Racing Development self-reported this violation.”
The crushing decision from the series' sees Hamlin lose 75 driver and owner points, dropping him from third to sixth in the regular season standings. The loss of ten playoff points will also be taken from his total of 21, slicing it down to 11. A race win is worth five playoff points. The team has also been fined $100,000.
Toyota Racing released a statement after the penalties were announced, confessing that this was a mistake on their end.
“As the engine builder for our partner NASCAR Cup Series teams, TRD is solely responsible for the handling and disposition of all our engines pre- and post-race. Despite procedures being in place, Denny’s race winning engine from Bristol was mistakenly returned to our Costa Mesa facility, disassembled and rebuilt instead of being torn down and inspected by NASCAR per the rulebook.
"Although we know with absolute certainty that the engine was legal and would have passed inspection, we left NASCAR in an impossible position because they were not given the opportunity to properly inspect our engine. We have reviewed our processes and have implemented several additional steps to ensure that this never happens again. TRD takes full responsibility for this grievous mistake, and we apologize to Denny, Chris, Coach Gibbs, the entire JGR organization, NASCAR and our fans.”
