NASCAR ejected three car chiefs from the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series garage following their respective cars failing pre-qualifying inspection twice.
The No. 9 car driven by Chase Elliott, the No. 3 driven by Austin Dillon and the No. 13 driven by Ty Dillon all failed pre-qualifying inspection.
In addition to the penalty to their car chiefs, those three drivers also lost 15 minutes of final practice time for the Daytona 500.
Greg Ebert is the car chief for Austin Dillon, Billy Plourde is the car chief for Ty Dillon,and Josh Kirk is the car chief for Chase Elliott.
All three will not be allowed into the Cup Series garage until the following race weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, barring an appeal.
These ejections mark the first time NASCAR has exercised its stricter penalties for teams who fail pre-qualifying inspection. Prior to this year, a car chief was ejected if a car failed pre-qualifying inspection three times. Now, it’s two.
All three cars eventually passed pre-qualifying inspection and the drivers qualified for the Daytona 500. Elliott qualified in fourth place, last among his Hendrick Motorsports teammates. The reigning Daytona 500, Austin Dillon, qualified 10th fastest, and Ty Dillon qualified 34th fastest. All three drivers will compete in the second Gander RV Duel.
About the author
Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.
A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.