RICHMOND, Va. — Erik Jones’ fourth-place finishing car failed inspection after Saturday night’s Cup race at Richmond Raceway and the disqualification puts him in a must-win situation next weekend to advance in the playoffs.
The team confirmed that Jones’ car failed on the rear toe in the Optical Scanning Station. Jimmy Makar, president of Joe Gibbs Racing, said that the team did not plan to appeal.
Jay Fabian, managing director of the Cup Series, explained what officials found:
“There’s fairly critical measurements on the rear wheel alignment that have to be followed, so there’s any number of things that the team could do or not do to make it fail,” Fabian said. “Standard process as a race, we give a pretty strong allowance on what they can run pre‑race to post‑race, and it’s crept out of that range.
“We didn’t see anything that was designed to fail. At the end of the day, the result is the same, it failed.”
Fabian explained why the measurement is important.
“Rear wheel steer and alignment is important as a critical factor in downforce,” he said. “It’s an aero benefit to get more skew in the rear, so we keep those parameters pretty tight so that everybody is racing with the same thing, and that’s the key to running all 16 cars through there. We just finished up probably 30 minutes ago, so it’s important to keep the playing field level and make sure all the playoff cars are the same and pass that thing.”
The disqualification takes away from Joe Gibbs Racing’s first 1-2-3-4 finish in team history.
Jones was dropped to last place and given one point. He had scored 42 points.
Jones is now 45 points behind Willian Byron for the final transfer spot to the second round. The penalty makes it highly unlikely he can advance to the second round of the playoffs via points, so he will need to win next Sunday’s race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.
This is the first time this season that a Cup car has been disqualified for failing inspection after the race. Four cars have been disqualified in the Xfinity Series and one Truck has been disqualified in that series.
#NASCAR’s Jay Fabian discusses the disqualification to @erik_jones’ car after the race at @RichmondRaceway pic.twitter.com/pQ7fymcalq
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) September 22, 2019
#NASCAR’s Jay Fabian said offIcials didn’t see anything designed to fail on the 20 car and explains why the measurement is important. pic.twitter.com/RgGg7DxZrM
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) September 22, 2019