No. 31 team gets P3 penalty, No. 42 P2 post-Darlington – Nascar

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NASCAR officials handed down a P3-level penalty to the Richard Childress Racing No. 31 team Wednesday, including a 15-point deduction that places an extra hurdle in driver Ryan Newman‘s path to Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs eligibility.

Newman finished eighth in last Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, but his No. 31 Chevrolet failed its post-race pass through the Laser Inspection Station (LIS) platform. On Wednesday, competition officials docked the team 15 points in the drivers and team owners standings and fined crew chief Luke Lambert $25,000.

Newman ended the Darlington weekend seven points behind Jamie McMurray, the last driver clinging to a playoff spot on the provisional Chase grid. The penalty leaves him in need of either winning or rallying to overcome a 22-point deficit in Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM), the regular-season finale at Richmond International Raceway.

Newman’s No. 31 team was also docked 10 points in March for the use of unapproved body attachment mounts and supports at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Lambert was then placed on NASCAR probation through the end of the year.

Competition officials on Wednesday also issued a P2-grade penalty to the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet team for a post-race LIS violation at Darlington. Third-place finisher Kyle Larson was docked 15 points and crew chief Chad Johnston was fined $22,500. The team also was assessed the loss of 15 owner points.

With one win on the season and a 15th-place spot in the standings after Darlington, Larson is locked in for the Chase.

Driver Ryan Blaney was tagged with a P1 penalty for a safety equipment infraction, and the driver was fined $1,000. The Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate took the NASCAR Throwback weekend concept too far by briefly participating in Saturday’s practice without protective driving gloves.

Other warnings issued after last weekend’s events at Darlington:

In the Sprint Cup Series, the Nos. 2 and 19 teams received written warnings and the loss of 15 minutes of practice time for failing pre-race LIS three times.

The Nos. 22 and 32 teams were issued written warnings for failing pre-race LIS twice, and the No. 14 got a written warning for failing pre-race template inspection twice.

In XFINITY, the No. 01 team was issued a written warning for failing pre-race LIS twice.

And in the Camping World Truck Series, the Nos. 02 and 8 teams were issued written warnings for truck trailing arms not meeting rule specifications.