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NASCAR explains delay in assessing penalty to Kyle Busch at Richmond

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Fresh off his first win of the season to snap a 12-race winless streak, and also his first top-10, Denny Hamlin discusses the strategy that led to the victory at Richmond and shares why momentum is only "week-to-week."

A NASCAR official explained Tuesday why it took more than 200 laps to assess a penalty to Kyle Busch’s team for having tape on the front grille of the car last weekend at Richmond Raceway.

Brad Moran, Cup series managing director, gave the explanation to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Busch was penalized on Lap 345 of the 400-lap race for having tape on the grille. Moran said Tuesday that the infraction happened when Busch pitted on Lap 128.

So why did it take so long to issue the penalty?

Moran said the tower was notified of the possible infraction on Lap 234 -- more than 100 laps after the infraction happened -- by a pit road official and officials had to discover how the tape ended up on the grille.

“We certainly needed to do our due diligence on how it got there, what it really was,” Moran told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “So we went back while the race was going on and did our due diligence to ensure, first of all, that the team placed the tape on the grille area.

“We did go back, found footage, found what we needed to say, yes, the team actually put it on. Unfortunately, they had a couple of stops, which they could have pulled it off and we probably wouldn’t even be talking about it today. That didn’t happen.

“We got notification around Lap 234 and it took a bit of time, obviously a lot of green-flag racing at a three-quarter mile track. It takes a while to pull all of that up and we do our due diligence.

“The last thing we’re going to do is bring a vehicle down and find out later that it was something picked up off the track or they grabbed it on pit road or something to that fact. Once everything was sorted out, we did see how it happened and where it was and the crew chief was notified that it has to be removed.”