Chris Gabehart woke up this morning with a little less in his wallet, courtesy Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series officials. The crew chief for Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was fined $10,000 on Monday (March 18) for a loose lug nut following Sunday’s race at Auto Club Speedway.
Despite not having all the lug nuts secured and fastened, Hamlin drove the FedEx Camry to a seventh-place finish. In a race that saw teammate Kyle Busch win his 200th race across all national series, the penalty was a small blemish on an otherwise stellar day for JGR. Three of their four cars finished inside the top 10 (Martin Truex Jr., eighth) while Busch led 134 of 200 laps.
No other penalties were announced.
The real loose lugnuts are the ones in NASCAR that dream up $10k penalties for this!
And in other breaking news…… Mike and Darrell Waltrip took a right instead of left turn from Cali to Virginia and won’t be heard from this weekend.
That would mean their driver won’t be heard from and THAT would bother a lot of people.