NASCAR Director breaks silence on Chase Briscoe's successful penalty appeal

NASCAR managing director Brad Moran has addressed the recent success of Joe Gibbs Racing and Chase Briscoe in their penalty appeal.

The driver of the No. 19 Toyota Camry XSE was handed a 100-point penalty for a modified single source part during the Daytona 500. On top of this, JGR was docked 100 owner points and crew chief James Small had been given a four-race suspension and a $100,000 fine. However, after the appeal process, the team was successful and the penalties were revoked.

The appeals panel stated: “The panel believes that the elongation of some of the holes on the number 19 Cup car spoiler base is caused by the process of attaching that specific spoiler base to the rear deck and not modification of the single source part.”

Commenting on the successful appeal during an appearance on The Morning Drive on Sirius XM Radio, Moran explained:

“We certainly wouldn’t write a penalty if we didn’t feel it was warranted to start with. NASCAR did feel that a penalty was warranted or we certainly wouldn’t have wrote it.

“There is a lot of stuff that gets involved (with) appeals and a lot of discussions on procedures and team procedures and single source supplied parts. It gets quite complicated but we absolutely go back and check everything — our own systems and procedures and if it were to happen the same way, that it would be a penalty again.”

Reacting to the victory, Briscoe explained to Dustin Long ahead of the race weekend in Phoenix:

“Yeah it’s crazy. The amount of relief I felt, honestly just, I felt like a new man the rest of the week. So yeah it’s been nice. Not that our season was over but it kind of felt that way to a certain extent. I mean, we could have still won a race, right, and made the playoffs but you’re going to be at such a deficit the whole season. So, yeah, I definitely felt like I got a new life in a sense just because it stings when it’s the first race, right, and you’re kind of buried the whole season. But now I feel like I’m back on a level playing field.”