No. 4 team assessed L1-level penalty, docked 40 points

[Panther_99FS]

https://m.nascar.com/news-media/2018/11/07/kevin-harvick-team-penalty-texas-40-points/


As a result, Harvick has been docked 40 driver points and the team loses 40 owner points as well. Harvick’s win at Texas no longer automatically qualifies the team for the Championship 4 in Miami. He will enter this weekend’s Round of 8 finale fourth among eight playoff drivers in the standings, three points above the cutline


Ouch!

[stansdds]

The pos-race inspection found the rear deck spoiler to be illegal, how did it pass pre-race inspection?

Speaking of inspections, why did Jimmie Johnson get penalized and have to start at the back of the field when his car did pass inspection on the third attempt? The rules are very specific, a team may make three attempts at a successful pre-race inspection. If the car fails the third attempt it will start the race from the rear of the field. The 48 passed inspection, yet was penalized. The 4 started the race with an illegal spoiler, yet passed pre-race inspection?

NASCAR's rules, the application of the rules, and inspection processes have become a steaming pile of poo.

[Panther_99FS]

The pos-race inspection found the rear deck spoiler to be illegal, how did it pass pre-race inspection?

Speaking of inspections, why did Jimmie Johnson get penalized and have to start at the back of the field when his car did pass inspection on the third attempt? The rules are very specific, a team may make three attempts at a successful pre-race inspection. If the car fails the third attempt it will start the race from the rear of the field. The 48 passed inspection, yet was penalized. The 4 started the race with an illegal spoiler, yet passed pre-race inspection?

NASCAR's rules, the application of the rules, and inspection processes have become a steaming pile of poo.

Good questions!

[PRB]

They said it was found in post-race inspection because of the more extensive tear down they do post race, and that whatever it was could not have been found during the pre-race inspection. They said they can't do the same level of inspection on pre-race because there isn't time. I get that. I'd like to know what it was. It wasn't size or angle or thickness, all of which would easily have been found before the race. As for the 48, they said it was Miss Communication's fault. She gets blamed for a lot of stuff. Inspector told the tower 3 when it was really 2. That's easy to understand.

BEGIN
1: Any process that involves human communication will occasionally have failures.
2: This is too important and they should never make such mistakes.
3: Return to 1.
END

Somebody on TV said "This has to be fixed!" Well how? "Make it one failure and you go to the back, that way you'll see a lot less failures!" That will fix nothing. As the 48 crew chief said, if the rule says something has to be 6 inches, any team that puts a car on the field with that thing at 5.99999 inches will be at a disadvantage to the rest of the field. Is that actually true? Doesn't matter. That's how crew chief's think. So all teams go not for 6.00000 inches, but 6.00001 inches, hoping it will slip past. All the time, every race. Even if they got sent to the back last week. Most of the time it does slip past, apparently.

[Roxane-21]

I'd like to know what it was. It wasn't size or angle or thickness, all of which would easily have been found before the race.
The spoiler was offset to the right by 300 thousandths (three tenths, or a little less than three eighths) of an inch. Tolerance on the manufactured part from Richardson is 10 thousandths (one hundredth) of an inch.

https://www.motorsport.com/nascar-cup/news/nascar-harvick-texas-spoiler-penalty/3210008/

[stansdds]

In pre-race inspection, all cars go through photo measurements of the exterior of the car. How does a spoiler that is mis-located by 3/10 of an inch get missed when going through a pre-race inspection? Perhaps I'll put on my tinfoil hat and say that NASCAR let it slide, then when Harvick wins and has far more wins than anyone else this season and is now likely to be the guaranteed winner of the championship, we'll "find" this rules infraction after the race so as to hopefully give a different driver a guaranteed spot at Homestead. I dunno, it just smells fishy to me.

[PRB]

The spoiler was offset to the right by 300 thousandths (three tenths, or a little less than three eighths) of an inch. Tolerance on the manufactured part from Richardson is 10 thousandths (one hundredth) of an inch.

https://www.motorsport.com/nascar-cup/news/nascar-harvick-texas-spoiler-penalty/3210008/

Interesting. I would think that would be "checkable" during the pre-race inspection.

[Roxane-21]

In pre-race inspection, all cars go through photo measurements of the exterior of the car. How does a spoiler that is mis-located by 3/10 of an inch get missed when going through a pre-race inspection? Perhaps I'll put on my tinfoil hat and say that NASCAR let it slide, then when Harvick wins and has far more wins than anyone else this season and is now likely to be the guaranteed winner of the championship, we'll "find" this rules infraction after the race so as to hopefully give a different driver a guaranteed spot at Homestead. I dunno, it just smells fishy to me.
The #4 team already said they will not appeal the penalty, which means they agree this was their fault.