The appeals panel has upheld the L6 NASCAR penalty to Ty Gibbs, Todd Gilliland with adjustments
16-year-old racing driver Ty Gibbs is the grandson of NASCAR Cup Series team owner Joe Gibbs. He’s in the Toyota Driver Development with a bright future ahead.
During the off-season, he ran a test session with DGR Crosley Racing. The team is the defending champions of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East division. Tyler Ankrum claimed that title for the team last season.
Related: NASCAR hands L6 penalty to Ty Gibbs
The private on-track test session took place on January 14 at New Smyrna Speedway. The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East season opener was scheduled for that very track on February 10th, 2019.
NASCAR has strict rules against testing. They do not allow testing on any active track on the schedule.
However, the team insisted the test was actually an ARCA Racing Series test session. ARCA is owned by NASCAR. However, that specific sanction does not have any rules against testing.
NASCAR stated that the team was still in violation regardless. The teams used the NASCAR approved spec engine during the test.
Original NASCAR penalty to Ty Gibbs, Todd Gilliland and Chad Walter
NASCAR leveled the following L6 penalty:
-Chad Walter, car chief for the team was suspended indefinitely.
-Todd Gilliland and Ty Gibbs were each been suspended for three races.
-Todd Gilliland has been docked 100 car owner points. (In the first race, the #17 car would start the season with -100 owner points.)
-Ty Gibbs was docked 100 driver points. (If he races K&N, Ty would start the season with 0 points.)
-Chad Walter, Todd Gilliland and Ty Gibbs were each been fined $5,000 each.
Ty Gibbs appeal
The team elected to appeal the penalty. That allowed them to operate as usual for the season opener.
The indefinite suspension handed out to crew chief Chad Walter has been revoked.
The rest of the original penalty stands.
Ty Gibbs ran the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East season opener with DGR Crosley Racing. He finished 2nd to driver Derek Kraus.
Gibbs was listed 2nd in series standings as a result of the finish. However, the 100 point penalty is now in action and it has dropped him to last (19th).
National Motorsports Appeal Board: Dixon Johnston, former Proctor and Gamble brand manager and an executive at Trone and SkyBox International; Bill Mullis, track operator at Langley Speedway; and Dale Pinilis, operator of Bowman-Gray Stadium.
DGR-Crosley has an option to submit the penalty for final review. If they chose to do so, they would be submitting their case to National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer Bryan Moss.
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Click here to view statements from NASCAR, ARCA and the team on the initial penalty announcement
