Martin Truex Jr. fails post-race car inspection after Chicagoland win
Driver of the Front Row Racing No. 78 Chevy will be allowed to keep win, but a points penalty could hurt his Chase chances in the next round.
It was an emotional win for Martin Truex Jr. in the winner’s circle after he captured the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday, however, his happiness was tamped down a bit when his No. 78 Chevy SS failed post-race inspection.
Truex is expected to keep his win allowing him to automatically advance to the Round of 12, but he could still face a deduction in points – the standard has been ten – that could damage his hopes of going further in the Chase.
NASCAR announced earlier in the week that it could take away a win if there was a serious infraction of the rules including the LIS laser inspection, however, according to Dustin Long at NBC Sports, this LIS failure was not that serious.
#NASCAR confirms NO encumbered finish with 78 and 48 failing Laser Inspection Station twice. @NASCARonNBC
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) September 18, 2016
NASCAR is expected to make an announcement Tuesday or Wednesday. Depending on the penalty, it is possible that Truex would have to win in the second round in order to advance to the Round of 8.
Truex told NBC Sports that he was concerned about the consistency of laser inspections as there have been a number teams failing it in recent times.
“It’s just crazy how that works,” he said. “We could probably go across that thing four times a day and get four different readings, so it’s a little frustrating, especially from our side of it — when people think that you’ve got a win and your car is illegal.
“One side is fine, and the way it read this time was the left rear was good, and the right rear was off. Usually, if the right rear is off, the left rear is off. So there’s a lot of weird stuff going on there with that machine, and it’s a little bit frustrating, for sure. At the end of the day, we need to make sure that the stuff doesn’t happen, and we’ll just have to be a little bit more conservative coming forward.”
Truex was not the only driver who failed the LIS. Jimmie Johnson, who finished 12th, also faces NASCAR sanctions and that could be a big hit to his chances of advancing to the next round. If he should get the expected ten point penalty, it would drop him into a tie for 12th and one bad race in the next two could leave him on the outside looking in when they head to Charlotte Motor Speedway on Oct. 8.
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