NASCAR: Las Vegas L1 penalties shake up standings

With just one race in the books in the 2020 season, the L1 penalties issued at Las Vegas Motor Speedway have shaken up the NASCAR Cup Series standings.

Not even two races into the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season, three teams have already been docked points in the driver and owner championship standings.

Three L1 penalties were issued, all to Toyota teams, after qualifying was rained out for tomorrow afternoon’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

They were issued to Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin (#11) and Kyle Busch (#18) as well as Leavine Family Racing’s Christopher Bell (#95), a pseudo teammate to Hamlin and Busch through the team’s enhanced technical alliance with Joe Gibbs’s organization. The nose of each car did not meet specifications in pre-race inspection.

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All three teams were docked 10 owner points, and all three drivers were docked 10 driver points.

With only one race having been completed so far this season, this had a drastic effect on the championship standings.

Hamlin, who won the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway to open up the season as the points leader, now sits in second place behind new leader Ryan Blaney of Team Penske. Hamlin had led the standings by seven points over Blaney (50 to 43). Blaney now leads by three over Hamlin (43 to 40), with Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick sitting close behind in third with 39 points.

Busch and Bell entered the second race weekend of the season after disastrous results in the season opener. Bell sat in 23rd place in the championship standings with 18 points while Busch sat in 26th with 12.

Now Bell has eight and Busch has just two. Bell now sits in a 26th place tie with JTG Daugherty Racing’s Ryan Preece, Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski and Germain Racing’s Ty Dillon while Busch now sits in 33rd, ahead of only one other driver who has scored this season (StarCom Racing’s Quin Houff with one point).

Tune in to Fox at 3:30 p.m. ET tomorrow afternoon for the live broadcast of the second race on the 36-race 2020 NASCAR Cup Series schedule.