Did You Notice? … NASCAR has continued its stance of standing tough this season on infractions both on and off the racetrack.
Sunday’s (April 26) disqualifications of Joey Logano and Ryan Preece for spoiler violations at Talladega Superspeedway are the latest NASCAR penalties that show officials have no tolerance for playing outside the rules — even if what they find is an unintentional mistake or does not give the car a competitive advantage.
The DQs come just one week after Jesse Love, at Rockingham Speedway, lost his NASCAR Xfinity Series race win once officials found a faulty rear suspension in post-race inspection. That part was put on display at Talladega this past weekend, part of an effort for the sport to be more transparent when it discovers something wrong long after the fans, drivers and teams have left the track.
NXS Race Director Eric Peterson’s explanation is great, coming two months after a show-and-tell at Circuit of the Americas for faulty hydration packs that led to penalties during Daytona Speedweeks for both Todd Gilliland‘s and Cody Ware’s teams. The sport should be commended for taking steps to showcase why they made a decision, for both fans and other race teams; as I’ve said before, racing is not like the NFL where you can see a competition-based penalty unfold in real time.
The question, then, becomes whether the penalty fits the crime. In defending their issue at Rockingham, Love and Richard Childress Racing claimed in-race contact caused the rear suspension to come apart. Logano and Preece’s teams, meanwhile, maintained the bolt issues on their spoilers were unintentional and did not cause a competitive advantage; neither driver wound up winning the race although both were in contention throughout.
It’s a tricky situation for NASCAR. Why have rules if they’re not equally and strictly enforced across the board? At the same time, the result of any disqualification, for any position in the field, is the equivalent of a black cloud on the sport. Fans want to be able to come to a race and know the winner was the one who crossed the finish line first. Finding out a day later someone cheated doesn’t just hurt the cheater’s reputation; it makes people question the integrity of the sport they’re often paying to watch each week.
There’s also the not-so-small matter of the way the sport’s playoff system works. For Logano, Preece, and Love, these penalties can be somewhat swept under the rug because they don’t have an effect on long-term postseason eligibility. All any one of them have to do is win a race and they’ll be running for the Xfinity or Cup series championship come September.
Perhaps that’s why Love isn’t as torn up as he could be about losing a win. He’s still got a season-opening victory at Daytona and six NXS playoff points, leaving him a title contender even if he doesn’t sniff the top 10 for months. Logano, the defending Cup champion, has won a race for 13 straight seasons and is likely to keep that streak alive this summer. Only in Preece’s case might this penalty ultimately matter over the long run; he’s never won a Cup race and the points lost from a Talladega DQ dropped him out of playoff position, at least for now.
You see this type of limited punishment when it comes to how NASCAR has handled rough driving. Twice this season, they’ve handed down a 50-point penalty for aggressive, intentional behavior officials felt put others at risk. The first was for Austin Cindric at COTA, whose hook of Ty Dillon on the straightaway sent the No. 10 car hard into the right-side wall.
One month later, in the Xfinity Series, Sammy Smith was docked 50 points for sparking a last-lap wreck at Martinsville Speedway that took out leader Taylor Gray and several others heading to the finish line.
Smith was fined $25,000 for his incident while Cindric was fined 50 grand. It’s money they’ll never get back.
But the points? They don’t really matter much, do they.
Smith found himself the unlikely winner after Love’s DQ at Rockingham, all but securing him a NXS playoff spot. Cindric joined him on the Cup side, eking out a win at Talladega that earned him the first win of any NASCAR or IndyCar Team Penske driver in 2025.
In the moment, those rough driving penalties may have had an impact as NASCAR tries to police these moments of aggressive payback. But if both drivers go out and earn themselves a postseason spot, the points they lost become meaningless as all playoff drivers earn a “reset” of their points after race 26. Only time will tell if each driver has learned their lesson, but on paper, it feels like a judge commuted their sentence.
Of course, there’s no way NASCAR could have anticipated both these drivers would bounce back so quickly. But there’s also another hurdle they could have handed to those rough driving penalties: making a future win ineligible for playoff consideration. That’s what they did with Austin Dillon back in August when his last-lap antics took out Logano, then Denny Hamlin in order to reach Richmond Raceway victory lane after an overtime restart.
Does that mean Cindric and Smith won’t learn a lesson from their conduct? That’s hard to say. Officiating can only do so much, in itself subjective in that people will always debate whether a penalty could or should have been called. It’s part of why the best type of refereeing is when you never hear they exist or have to question any of the consequences.
However, it feels like NASCAR has a bit of a Goldilocks problem on its hands. The post-race inspection findings have showcased a level of above-board integrity and detail we’ve perhaps never seen before in the sport; but have we tilted too far in the other direction? Where the consequences for shoplifting are being treated like first degree murder?
At the same time, is where the sport might be suffering a bit — from drivers losing their patience and going overboard rather than passing someone the right way — where NASCAR should be pushing the issue further? It’s never an easy answer, especially after a generation that watched Dale Earnhardt bump and run his way to not only championships but a level of national recognition that elevated the sport. These types of decisions are never easy for Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer and everyone who puts their heart and soul into this sport each week.
At the very least, there’s been consistency, a big step in the right direction. It’s now a matter of tweaking to ensure these penalties still have teeth; fair punishments a reflection of the actual crimes committed.
Did You Notice? … Quick hits before taking off…
- How bad has Logano’s luck been this season? He’s without a top-five finish through 10 races after the DQ, the longest he’s ever gone without one to start a season since joining Team Penske in 2013.
- For all the bad that’s happened to RFK Racing this season, all is not lost even after the Talladega DQ. Chris Buescher remains in playoff position after his crash, posting five top-10 finishes in 10 races. Preece now sits 14 points behind a playoff spot despite his penalty and Brad Keselowski, despite sitting 32nd in points, is only 83 markers outside the top 16. Feels like a good time to maybe reach out and grab someone with Ford experience to help boost them, no? I hear someone named Rodney Childers is available…
Follow Tom Bowles on X @NASCARBowles
The author of Did You Notice? (Wednesdays) Tom spends his time overseeing Frontstretch’s 40+ staff members as its majority owner and Editor-in-Chief. Based outside Philadelphia, Bowles is a two-time Emmy winner in NASCAR television and has worked in racing production with FOX, TNT, and ESPN while appearing on-air for SIRIUS XM Radio and FOX Sports 1's former show, the Crowd Goes Wild. He most recently consulted with SRX Racing, helping manage cutting-edge technology and graphics that appeared on their CBS broadcasts during 2021 and 2022.
You can find Tom’s writing here, at CBSSports.com and Athlonsports.com, where he’s been an editorial consultant for the annual racing magazine for 15 years.