After Chris Buescher's No. 17 RFK Racing Ford was found to be in violation of Sections 14.1.C (overall assembled vehicle rules) and 14.5.4.G (front bumper cover) of the NASCAR Rule Book following the recent race at Kansas Speedway, Buescher was docked 60 points and five playoff points.
Additionally, the No. 17 team was docked 60 points and five playoff points in the owner standings, and the team was fined $75,000. Crew chief Scott Graves was suspended for the races at North Wilkesboro Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The penalty dropped Buescher from above the playoff cut line to below it, and teammate Ryan Preece was the driver who jumped from below it to above it as a result of Buescher's demotion.
Following this past Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, Preece is still the 16th and final driver above the provisional cut line, and Buescher is still below it.
But on Wednesday, the National Motorsports Appeals Panel amended the L1-level penalty issued to the No. 17 RFK Racing team and Buescher, as the team was found to have violated "one or more, but not all, of the rules from the initial penalty".
The team reportedly violated 14.5.4 (front bumper cover) but did not violate 14.1.2 (exhaust cover panel).
The points penalty has been reduced from 60 points to 30 points.
Preece had been sitting 13 points above the cut line, as Kaulig Racing's A.J. Allmendinger was the first driver below it. But with Buescher gaining 30 points in the middle of the week, he is now the first driver below the cut line, and Preece is now just six points above it.
All in all, RFK Racing obviously made the right decision to appeal, as Buescher's playoff chances got a significant boost with the reinstatement of 30 of his points. However, Preece's path to get to the playoffs for the first time in his career got slightly more challenging, given his reduced gap to the cutoff.
Preece himself would be well above the cut line had his own disqualification from second place at Talladega Superspeedway not taken place, but that was due to a clear-cut violation and RFK Racing did not appeal.
Tune in to Amazon Prime Video at 7:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, June 1 for the live broadcast of the Cracker Barrel 400 from Nashville Superspeedway.