NASCAR Truck Series: Niece Motorsports’ appeal fails, Ross Chastain’s penalty upheld

Niece Motorsports appealed the penalty that stripped Ross Chastain of what would have been his second victory of the 2019 NASCAR Truck Series season, but this penalty was upheld.

Niece Motorsports’ Ross Chastain dominated Sunday afternoon’s NASCAR Truck Series race, the M&M’s 200, at Iowa Speedway, en route to his second victory of the season, the most among full-time drivers, and his first victory since he declared for Truck Series points in early June.

The victory for the 26-year-old Alva, Florida native in his 200-lap race around the four-turn, 0.875-mile (1.408-kilometer) Iowa Speedway oval in Newton, Iowa shook up the playoff picture because of the fact that he has only been eligible to earn Truck Series points for two races.

But after this race, a race during which he led 141 laps and won stage one, stage two and the race itself, Chastain was disqualified and stripped of the 60 total points he earned in it, as his #44 Chevrolet failed post-race inspection. He was officially left with a 32nd (last) place finish and just five points.

GMS Racing’s Brett Moffitt, who finished the race in second place behind Chastain in his #24 Chevrolet, was handed the victory, which was his first victory as the reigning Truck Series champion.

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Niece Motorsports, however, declared their intention to appeal the penalty that stripped Chastain of this victory, and they did appeal it. But this appeal ended up failing, so Moffitt kept his victory and Chastain kept his 32nd place finish.

Instead of entering the season’s next race, Saturday night’s Gateway 200, at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in Madison, Illinois with 98 points, a victory that counted toward a playoff berth and just 14 points out of the required top 20 in the championship standings to qualify for the playoffs, Chastain is set to enter it with 43 points, no victories that count toward a playoff berth and a total of 69 points out of the top 20.

It will be an uphill battle for Chastain to secure one of the eight playoff positions over the course of the regular season’s final six races, but he is certainly capable of not only pulling this off but going on to win the championship as well.

Will Ross Chastain bounce back from his disappointment following the M&M’s 200 at Iowa Speedway this Saturday night by earning his first victory as a playoff eligible driver this season in the Gateway 200? This race is the 11th race of the 16-race NASCAR Truck Series regular season and of the entire 23-race season, and it is set to be broadcast live from World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1.