Eleven Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series cars failed pre-race inspection at Kansas Speedway.
The cars, driven by Aric Almirola, Daniel Suarez, Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Larson, Ty Dillon, Joey Logano, Michael McDowell, Landon Cassill, Joey Gase and Timmy Hill all failed pre-race inspection. Their qualifying times were disallowed, so they will be lined up according to owner points.
Five of the 11 drivers qualified inside the top 10 and seven of those drivers qualified in the top 20. All three manufacturers saw at least one of its cars fail pre-race inspection.
Eight of those cars passed on the second attempt through inspection and will only have their qualifying times disallowed, which puts them at the rear of the field for the start of the race.
Only Elliott, Larson and Logano’s cars failed on the second attempt, and each team will have a crew member ejected in addition to starting at the rear of the field. All three passed on the third attempt and will not face further penalties.
@chaseelliott crew is rushing back into #digitalally400 inspection line for 3rd attempt @kansasspeedway pic.twitter.com/VTFGcfWUoL
— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) May 11, 2019
@joeylogano has cleared #digitalally400 inspection on his third attempt @kansasspeedway pic.twitter.com/hJmrDwYbyJ
— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) May 11, 2019
@chaseelliott crew is rushing back into #digitalally400 inspection line for 3rd attempt @kansasspeedway pic.twitter.com/VTFGcfWUoL
— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) May 11, 2019
@chaseelliott has cleared #digitalally400 inspection on the 3rd attempt @kansasspeedway pic.twitter.com/36YpgtECXN
— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) May 11, 2019
For those drivers starting at the rear of the field, a competition caution at lap 30 will serve as a way to make up for the deficit on the initial start after rain rolled through the speedway overnight and earlier this morning.
Updated Digital Ally 400 starting lineup
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.
teams going back to their old ways, and the penalty isn’t severe enough, end of discussion.
Perhaps a TWO lap penalty would work lol.
Send them home. Get the sponsors’ attention.
What if you are unsponsored? (Like 4 of the teams on that inspection-failed list)
NA$CAR doesn’t care about them. It’s Hendrick, Gibbs, Penske and Ganassi (in that order) that matter. Send one of their cars home and see what happens.
Then those teams will complain that the small teams didn’t get sent home and we’ll have chaos. It’s not the best solution, but having big teams go home would be interesting. My solution would be to revoke the car that failed inspection for the weekend and force them to use a backup car. Also, dock them in points depending on how many times they failed inspection.
NA$CAR needs the small teams to bring out cautions to help the chosen ones.