Johnson also fails LIS inspection at Chicago

Instead, NASCAR will eliminate the P2 and P3 penalties it introduced a week ago for failing LIS, citing fair play.

“This was the most fair decision we could get to”, said O’Donnell, explaining that a points penalty assessed to a team still trying to get into the next round of the Chase would have dramatically different effects than on a team that is already locked into the Round of 12 with a win at Chicago.

Truex won the opening race of the Chase for the Sprint Cup but his vehicle failed postrace inspection.

Both race-winner Truex and Johnson were hit with minor, P2-level penalties at the laser inspection station after the race, meaning their vehicle tech specifications were slightly out of tolerance.

“It would be a significant infraction if someone would incur that and it would impact the win bonus”.

Said NASCAR vice president of competition Scott Miller: “We missed that”. O’Donnell said he feels the industry believes the Truex and Johnson infractions were minor in nature. So NASCAR decided not to penalize either team and going forward will punish only P4-level post-race inspection infractions, which would be considered egregious. “We want to have in place a level playing field for all 40 cars in each event”.

Also, all 16 teams in the Chase will go through the laser inspection after this Sunday’s race at New Hampshire. If the auto had won, the driver would not be allowed to use the win to advance to the next round of the Chase.

NASCAR will find out if that penalty is enough of a deterrent.

For that reason, they are stepping up the consequences for failing post-race LIS. “There is a way physically to get it to pass afterward, but how much performance are you going to give up to take a guess [of] we think it is going to move this much in a race under normal wear and tear?”