NASCAR: Furniture Row accepts post-race penalty

Furniture Row Racing president Joe Garone released a statement Monday accepting NASCAR's post-race infraction on the race-winning No. 78 car, issued after the Toyota Camry failed post-race laser inspection after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. But he also pointed out that an incident with Kevin Harvick could have caused the car to fall out of compliance.

"The right rear of our car was well within the tolerance margin, which showed that we were trying to be conservative," Garlone said. "However, the left rear wheel alignment was off by approximately ten-thousandths of an inch, which in high probability was due to damage in that area as a result of being hit by the No. 4 car. We believe the laser inspection numbers were correct and accept NASCAR's decision that was made following Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway."

NASCAR has a policy to not take wins away from a team but can strip a victor of their bonus points or playoff round advancement if a violation appeared egregious and intentional. This was not the case for the race-winning No. 78 team.

The penalty could involve a reduction of championship points, which could prove costly to Johnson, who left Chicagoland eighth in the championship standings and just nine markers ahead of Tony Stewart – the occupant the final provisional advancement spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

After the race, an exasperated Truex told NBC Sports he didn't think the laser inspection system was consistent.

"It's just crazy how that works," he said. "We could probably go across that thing four times a day and get four different readings, so it's a little frustrating, especially from our side of it – when people think that you've got a win and your car is illegal.

"One side is fine, and the way it read this time was the left rear was good, and the right rear was off. Usually, if the right rear is off, the left rear is off. So there's a lot of weird stuff going on there with that machine, and it's a little bit frustrating, for sure. At the end of the day, we need to make sure that the stuff doesn't happen, and we'll just have to be a little bit more conservative coming forward."

Truex called the rule modification "the right thing to do."

"We don't want somebody going to (the championship round) having a car that's going to have a half-inch of extra skew in it during the race or after the race just to go out and win, so I think the rule is where it needs to be," he said. "I just wish we could figure out how to make the readings on that LIS machine a little bit more consistent."

Greg Biffle and Aric Almirola were each found to be missing a single lug nut. Under the new rules, one missing lug nut will no longer result in a crew chief suspension. Instead, it will warrant a fine between $10,000-$20,000.

RACER.com's Matt Weaver contributed to this report.