Chip Ganassi Racing loses on call, leaving Kyle Larson 36 points from start



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KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Kyle Larson remains 36 points behind the starting point for Sunday's elimination race at Kansas Speedway, while Chip Ganassi Racing lost a call on Friday for a penalty for violating the NASCAR-damaged vehicle policy .

A panel of three members held a hearing Friday morning and dismissed the appeal. Chip Ganassi Racing made a last call to Bryan Moss, NASCAR's final call agent, who will hear the case.

NASCAR has accelerated the appeal process as Sunday's race at Kansas Speedway is the last race of the second round. The Monster Energy NASCAR Series playoffs have been reduced from 12 to eight. The four winless drivers in the round and lowest points will be eliminated.

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Even with 26 points behind him, Larson would have faced a high probability of advancing without winning Sunday. The maximum points a driver can win in a race without winning is 55. At 36 points Martin Truex Jr. (who swept the Kansas races in 2017 and second in Kansas in May), which is currently the last driver to score points, and at 39 points from Clint Bowyer, Larson is practically in a situation of imperative victory Sunday.

"I do not know much about calls," Larson said Friday afternoon before training in Kansas. "I drive the race car rather obviously, a penalty of 10 points does not help me, but I felt that with 26 points behind, we would probably have to get in this week and win to win in the next round.

"It does not mean much to me, the other 10 points I've seen, because we had to come here and win."

Larson led 101 laps to Kansas in May before settling for fourth place.

"There is not much pressure," Larson said. "There is pressure to not make mistakes and cost you the place where you are [trying to make] in the next round – you are so worried about not getting it wrong.

"Where is our position, we know what we need to do, we can be aggressive, I can run hard all the way, I can just run with little care, I suppose, and our team can make aggressive calls to the stands. . "

NASCAR announced Wednesday it had imposed a 10-point penalty on Larson and fined Team Leader Chad Johnston $ 25,000 and Suspended Car Leader David Bryant to determine whether the team had used metal tabs to repair his car during the race Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway. The rules require that teams use only fasteners or tape to repair the car.

NASCAR did not surprise the team doing it during the race or during the repairs, noticing the offense only during the ex-post inspection Sunday night. If the offense had been found during the race, NASCAR could have parked Larson against the offense, which would have allowed him to earn 25 points less compared to his 11th place. If NASCAR had witnessed the offense, he might have simply told the team not to use metal tabs and could have tried to fix the car with fasteners or tape in the six minutes outs.

CGR, in a statement on Thursday, said it has the feeling to follow the proper procedure.

"After reviewing the penalty, the rules and the procedure used during the race at Talladega, we are convinced that we have done nothing wrong," said the team in a statement.

The definition of a fastener does not appear in the NASCAR rule book, but NASCAR rules require teams to ensure that they use approved parts and parts, forcing teams to wonder if a part or element is lawful before use.

NASCAR annually appoints industry experts to hear appeals and designates three people on this list. Moss, the last appeals officer, is a past president of Gulfstream.

The members of the appeal board who heard the Ganassi appeal were Chuck Deery, Dixon Johnston and Cathy Rice.

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