Only 8 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races included mechanical penalties. 9 penalties were issued in total.
That means in only 23.5% of the races NASCAR found something illegal after post-race inspection. That data included the 34 regular season points races so far in 2017.
However, the penalty reports are weekly. If you include safety violations, there’s been 32 penalties issues in the NASCAR Cup Series.
In 50% of the races so far, NASCAR has found a lug nut violation.
At appears every week NASCAR is forced to issue a penalty report. However, the data below shows just how infrequently it’s related to a mechanical rule violations.
Typically, those penalty reports actually only include lug nut penalties. While it appears that NASCAR hands out penalty after penalty and that teams are cheating left and right, the data would show the opposite.
NASCAR Penalty Report Data:
(Through Texas Motor Speedway)