NASCAR penalized Ross Chastain after ‘a little technical hiccup’ and the driver stands behind his team in the appeal
On Sunday, Ross Chastain cruised to victory at Iowa Speedway. The win was claimed on Sunday afternoon in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series.
The win came shortly after Chastain declared his run for points in the series. The race win was set to lock him into the playoff rounds.
A hour after the win, the race winning car failed post-race inspection. NASCAR officials gave the team multiple attempts at the inspection line, they failed all of them with the front of the car being too low.
For the first time since 1960, NASCAR took a win away. Instead, the second place finisher of Brett Moffitt was declared the official winner of the event.
Ross Chastain was credited with a last place finish and five points.
Now, Chastain must win another race to re-qualify for the Playoffs. In addition, he must climb into the top 20 in points to be eligible, even with a win. Current, Chastain sits 35th in the standings.
On Monday, Chastain commented on the events from the day prior. He noted the ride height rule as an ‘old rule’. The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series lacks a ride height rule.
Related: Kyle Busch says his penalty for a ride height being too high was ‘a joke’
Ross Chastain comments on the NASCAR penalty
“We stomped everybody’s tails out in Iowa and I’m proud of that and our Niece Motorsports team is proud of that,” Chastain said Monday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “SiriusXM Speedway.
“A little technical hiccup there after the race isn’t going to take away the fact that we start started 19th, won both stages. We were able to drive past trucks. We never got passed once all day.”
“It was a pretty incredible day and something I will never forget and I will not let anything take it away from us. No old rule that still is in effect that isn’t applicable anymore, but the rules are the rules, we understand that. But we still kicked their butts and I’m proud of it.”
NASCAR team appeals ride height violation
The team has elected to appeal the penalty. That appeal will be heard on Wednesday. It’s a decision the driver supports.
“I stand by everything we do,” Chastain said. “We have something pretty incredible, something I’ve never been a part of in the Truck Series, where you have a group of guys that pushes as hard as this group does and makes as much speed.
“At the end of the day everybody can talk about their guys working their tails off and all that but we have speed. That’s so hard to find. A lot of times you don’t know why you have it, but I know we have it and we’re only getting better and we’re only going to be stronger as we move forward.”
“We’ve got more trucks coming. We’re building better pieces and putting them together better. So no, I don’t know what the deal is with the truck, but I’m behind them 100%.”
“I’ve got to say, man, in my opinion, I really don’t agree with it, thinking that we did something during the race, cars can be modified tremendously and illegally, I don’t agree with that and I hate that that stuff gets talked about because it’s just not the case.”
“Anybody in the sport knows that tech ride height is not indicative of how low the race car is on the sport. I wish that was explained a little better. I hate that the sport is in a point that people don’t understand the difference between tech height and dynamic height on the race track.”
Static height (tech height) is the height of the car in the garage area. Dynamic height is a height of the chassis or body to the race track after downforce, corners, throttle or braking compress the suspension.
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