Cup and Truck Teams Penalized After Darlington Inspection Failures

Penalties intensify pit-road risk by removing crew chiefs, stripping pit selection at a track where passing is difficult.

Overview

Three Cup entries failed post-qualifying inspection twice at Darlington — Hendrick’s No. 9 (Chase Elliott), RFK’s No. 17 (Chris Buescher) and MBM’s No. 66 (Timmy Hill) — before passing on a third attempt and remaining eligible to qualify.
Car chiefs Matt Barndt (No. 9), Josh Sisco (No. 17) and Dylan Roberts (No. 66) were ejected, and each team lost its pit stall selection for the Goodyear 400.
Four Truck Series entries — Tricon Garage’s No. 1 (William Sawalich) and Kaulig Racing’s Nos. 10 (AJ Allmendinger), 12 (Brenden Queen) and 25 (Corey LaJoie) — also failed twice, then passed on a third attempt and raced.
Truck chiefs Bayley Currey, Ethan Hutchens, Ryan Richmond and Donald Colwell were removed, and those teams forfeited pit stall selection for the April 3 event at Rockingham Speedway.
NASCAR applied its standard rule for two failed attempts, continuing an early-season pattern of multi-team inspection issues previously seen at Las Vegas and Atlanta.