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Eric Phillips, crew chief on the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, has been suspended from one series points-paying race and fined $10,000 because the No. 18 car which Kyle Busch drove to the win in the Pocono Green 250 at Pocono Raceway on June 2 failed post-race inspection. The car failed because it didn’t meet post-race height requirements, according to the weekly NASCAR penalty report, released Tuesday.
The No. 18 team also was docked 10 owner points. Busch, as a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver, does not collect points in the Xfinity Series, so there was no driver points penalty. Busch and the No. 18 retain the race win, despite the inspection failure.
The Pocono race was the second-consecutive Xfinity Series race in which a JGR entry failed post-race inspection because of a violation of car-height rules. After the Alsco 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Jason Ratcliff, crew chief of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, was suspended for one race and fined $10,000. The No. 20 team and its driver Christopher Bell were each docked 10 points as results of the Charlotte infraction. Bell finished third at the North Carolina event.
The Pocono race was the second in the last three Xfinity Series races after which the race-winning car failed post-race inspection. After Justin Allgaier won the May 5 race at Dover International Speedway in Delaware, his crew chief Jason Burdett was suspended for two races and fined $25,000 because of an issue with the rear suspension on the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, discovered in post-race inspection. Allgaier and JR Motorsports were docked 25 driver and owner points.
The penalties for Phillips and the No. 18 Xfinity Series team were the only penalties on NASCAR’s penalty report following the race weekend that also included the Pocono 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race on June 3.
