Following the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR allegedly discovered an illegal modification to the spoiler of Chase Briscoe's No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
The discovery resulted in a 100-point penalty, along with the deduction of a 10 playoff points, a $100,000 fine, and a four-race suspension for crew chief James Small.
But Joe Gibbs Racing were confident in their case, and the National Motorsports Appeals Panel overturned the penalty. They determined that what NASCAR thought was a modification actually took place due to "the process of attaching that specific spoiler base to the rear deck".
So Briscoe jumped from negative-28 points to 72 points, elevating him from 41st to a 14th place tie in the point standings.
However, the qualifying order for this coming Sunday afternoon's Shriners Children's 500 had already been generated, and based on Briscoe's metric score, his point standing was taken from before the penalty reversal, rather than after it was confirmed.
Chase Briscoe still gets slightly screwed despite penalty reversal
The four-variable metric involves the car's rank in the owner standings (35%), the driver's most recent race result (25%), the car's most recent race result (25%), and the rank of the driver's fastest lap in the most recent race (15%).
He is set to qualify 14th, whereas if his updated position in the point standings had been used, he would be lined up to qualify 24th. This can make a significant difference, given the fact that qualifying later tends to provide drivers with more favorable track conditions.
We have seen NASCAR revise the qualifying order following mid-week penalties in the past, or simply wait to publish the order until after the penalty report is issued, but that does not appear to be the case this time around.
That could technically still change, but if it doesn't, then Briscoe is getting a raw deal.
UPDATE: NASCAR made the appropriate change, despite not publishing a new qualifying order.
Briscoe secured his first career win at Phoenix back in March 2022, and he started that race in sixth place.
The qualifying session for Sunday's 312-lap race around the four-turn, 1.022-mile (1.645-kilometer) Avondale, Arizona oval is set to be broadcast live on Amazon Prime Video beginning at 3:15 p.m. ET on Saturday, March 8.
Fox Sports 1 is set to provide live coverage of the Shriners Children's 500 beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 9. Start a free trial of FuboTV today and catch all of the action!