NASCAR Truck Series: Niece Motorsports to appeal Ross Chastain’s penalty

Niece Motorsports announced their intention to appeal the penalty that stripped Ross Chastain of what would have been his second victory of the 2019 NASCAR Truck Series season.

Similarly to what happened in Formula 1‘s Canadian Grand Prix last Sunday when Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel won the race but Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton was declared the winner, Niece Motorsports’ Ross Chastain crossed the finish line in first place in the NASCAR Truck Series race at Iowa Speedway, the M&M’s 200, but GMS Racing’s Brett Moffitt was declared the race winner.

After Chastain led 141 laps of this 200-lap race around the four-turn, 0.875-mile (1.408-kilometer) Iowa Speedway oval in Newton, Iowa, the #44 Chevrolet that he drove to victory lane failed post-race inspection since the front of the truck was “extremely low”.

As a result, Chastain was disqualified from the race. Instead of winning it and scoring 40 points, he was scored in 32nd (last) place and scored five, and Moffitt, who originally finished 2.717 seconds behind Chastain in second place, was handed the victory.

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Chastain also won stage one and stage two, originally giving him 10 additional points each, so the second place finishers in both of these stages, ThorSport Racing teammates Matt Crafton (stage one) and Ben Rhodes (stage two), were declared the stage winners. Chastain was officially scored in 32nd in both of these stages as well and scored no points.

However, Niece Motorsports have announced their intention to appeal this penalty, which effectively dropped Ross Chastain out of the playoff picture and put the pressure on him to win another race and to continue to climb up the championship standings and into the top 20 through the final six races of the 16-race regular season in order to secure himself one of the eight spots for the three-round, seven-race playoffs. They claim that his truck was damaged during the race and that is what caused the ensuing post-race inspection failure.

Niece Motorsports’ posted a statement confirming this intention on their Twitter page.

The ramifications of this penalty were huge, so if Niece Motorsports’ appeal ends up being successful, the ramifications of that would be even larger.

Here is what Truck Series managing director Brad Moran had to say about why Chastain was disqualified to begin with, according to Yahoo Sports.

"“We have a procedures and rules in place, trucks are restricted on their ride heights at the front and rear of the vehicles. Unfortunately, the 44 (Chastain’s truck) was low on the front, extremely low. We have a process of what happens at that point. They do get an opportunity to roll around. They put fuel in the vehicle, they air the tires. Give them at least five to 10 minutes. Check them a second time. Unfortunately, the 44 did not rise on the front at all.”"

The appeal process for Niece Motorsports’ appeal will be expedited. If their appeal fails, they cannot further appeal NASCAR’s decision. Here is what section 14.6.f of the rule book states about the matter, according to Yahoo Sports.

"“In a Race Disqualification Appeal, the decision of the Panelist, which could be an Appeals Panelist, FAO, or his/her alternates, under Section 14 Appeals to the National Stock Car Racing Appeals Panel, will be considered final and there is no ability to appeal the decision to the Final Appeals Office as outlined in Section 15 Final Appeal to the National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer.”"

Assuming Niece Motorsports’ appeal fails, Ross Chastain will have a 69-point deficit to make up in the championship standings over the course of the 2019 NASCAR Truck Series regular season’s final six races to get into the top 20, and in addition to getting into the top 20 in the standings, he must win at least one of these races to lock himself into the playoffs.

If this appeal succeeds, Chastain will have just a 14-point deficit to make up in the championship standings in these six races to get into the top 20, and he will already have a victory to go toward securing a playoff berth.