That didn't take long.
Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 19 team was caught modifying a single-source supplier part at Daytona International Speedway, and exactly one race into the 36-race 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, NASCAR has already been forced to crack down on cheating.
NASCAR dealt the No. 19 team an L2-level penalty after further inspection at the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina revealed that the team had made modifications to the No. 19 Toyota's spoiler.
Modifying a single-source supplier part is one of the cardinal sins of the Next Gen era, yet every so often, teams are caught doing it.
Chase Briscoe pays for his team's crimes
Chase Briscoe, in his first race weekend with Joe Gibbs Racing after spending the first four years of his career with Stewart-Haas Racing, delivered Toyota their first ever pole position in the Daytona 500 and went on to finish in fourth place, the best finish for a "Great American Race" polesitter since Dale Jarrett won from pole back in 2000.
But instead of walking away from the "World Center of Racing" with 33 points, which would have seen him in a 10th place tie in the standings and 13 points above the playoff cut line, Briscoe finds himself with negative-67 points, placing him last among all eight billion-plus people currently inhabiting planet Earth.
That is because NASCAR docked Briscoe 100 points in the driver standings, and they also docked the No. 19 team 100 points in the owner standings. He is now 87 points below the cut line.
With 25 races left in the regular season, he is hardly in a must-win situation, but an 87-point hole is massive. On the plus side, he could literally win this weekend's race at Atlanta Motor Speedway and qualify for the playoffs.
But with only 60 points on the table for each driver, he is still guaranteed to leave Atlanta with fewer points than anybody reading this article (barring another team being caught cheating).
Briscoe and the No. 19 team were also docked 10 playoff points, meaning that if they qualify for the playoffs, 10 points will be docked from their point total before each round in which they remain championship eligible. So in that respect, even if he does make it to the postseason, this is a penalty which will have lasting negative effects.
Crew chief James Small was also suspended for the next four races at Atlanta, Circuit of the Americas, Phoenix Raceway, and Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He is eligible to return for race number six on the 2025 calendar at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, March 23.
Whether or not the No. 19 team is back in plus-territory when it comes to points by that time remains to be seen.
Sunday's Ambetter Health 400 is set to be shown live on Fox from Atlanta Motor Speedway starting at 3:00 p.m. ET. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss it!