Officials Explain, Display Illegal Part From No. 3 NASCAR Chevy
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The No. 3 NASCAR Chevy Camaro ZL1, driven by Austin Dillon and fielded by Richard Childress Racing (RCR), was penalized after the Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway on April 16th, 2023. The race car was found to have an illegally modified part that resulted in hefty penalties, and recently, NASCAR revealed the details regarding the infraction.
On Saturday, May 6th, 2023, NASCAR officials displayed the specific part confiscated from the No. 3 NASCAR Chevy that the sanctioning body deemed illegal. The part in question is a splitter stay, which is one of six bars that serve to connect the race car’s splitter to its frame, and is part of its underwing assembly. The bar is designed to feature three securing nuts, including two jam nuts and one centered couple nut, serving to secure the splitter in place within a tolerance of one-thousand of an inch. The splitter stay is not adjustable after prerace inspection.
NASCAR displayed the part in question from the No. 3 team’s penalty post-Martinsville.
This is a splitter stay, which must stay locked in place following inspection. Here, the two jam nuts and black center coupling nut should be three separate pieces. They were bonded into one,… pic.twitter.com/E121ovNPCN
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) May 6, 2023
The splitter stay from the No. 3 NASCAR Chevy that was seized after Martinsville had all three nuts bonded together, creating a single bar. Doing so disabled the bar’s locking function and “permits further movement and adjustability either after prerace inspection or during a pit stop,” according to a statement from NASCAR.
In the interest of transparency, the part in question was displayed this past weekend at Kansas Speedway, in the NASCAR hauler, allowing crew chiefs and team managers from other teams to see it for themselves.
The illegally modified splitter stay resulted in a slew of penalties to the No. 3 NASCAR Chevy team, including a 60-point deduction from Dillon, while crew chief Keith Rodden was fined $75,000 and suspended for two races.
RCR did attempt to appeal the penalty on May 2nd but lost, and as such, the fines and point deductions will be upheld.
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It’s a STAY not a STRAY
“Stray” or “Stay”
Good thing thing they were find and susspended for this. I can’t not imagine how much of a advantege this gave there team. Hope fully this teeches other team’s less sons.
Good thing they were fined and suspended for this. I can’t imagine how much of an advantage this gave their team. Hopefully, this teaches other teams a lesson.
Just translating.
NASCAR continues to make a killing of these petty BS infractions. Still say let NASCAR build and own the cars and just hire the drivers to race them. This kind of BS will be the demise of this phony stock car racing
LOL
Just couldn’t STRAY away from fixing it.
“A valiant attempt” at cheating.
I thought they permanently retired “3”. Shows you how much I’ve paid attention to NASCAR lately.
OK, but not as bad as Smokey Yunick’s ’67 Chevelle….
Disguised as a ’66.
They knew what they were doing. Somebody switched. Wonder what Rick Farley would say?
Heavy-handed, silly tick-tack Nascar nonsense which serves just to alienate fans and now, team owners, against Nascar.
Let’s be real for a second: Martinsville is such a small track that aero cheating (or in the case of Nascar officials, LOOKING for aero cheating) makes no sense at all. It’s a track where the winner could have a damaged front fender or fascia and still compete for a win; something not possible at the super speedways or even the Tricky Triangle of Pocono.
Just more NASCAR BS. And friends ask why I don’t watch NASCAR racing anymore.
With this being adjustable, but locked into one piece, just how is it adjustable?
A demonstration would be helpful. I have questions about the air extractors on the HMS cars as well. Just how much quicker would this have made the cars?
Given the history of NASCAR or racing in general “rule bending” has existed and been admired. Killing ingenuity does not improve anything and it’s not like the France family needs more money.
One side is reverse threaded so you can adjust up/down with a simple turn instead of needing to loosen lock nuts. They must have a set max/min to tech. Pretty smart trick if they didn’t get caught. Probably gave them a pretty decent advantage to be able to move the splitter.
I really question of the HMS air extractors actually gave them an advantage. They put the stock ones in and still cleaned house that weekend. I really belive it was mostly fitment issues. I’m also not naive to the fact that if NASCAR gave them an inch, they probably took a mile.
Love hearing about ingenuity and “rule bending”. Understand the concept of the NextGen but it makes it really hard for teams to have much.
If that were HMS, they would have won the appeal and got a hand slap …RCR is a smaller team so they get the bigger fines!! More crap from Nascrap…hope the drivers socks match or hate to guess what that would cost !!
Just curious, what will Nascar use when the Camaro is discontinued- a Trax or Trailblazer?