Hendrick to appeal hood louver penalties

Hendrick Motorsports issued a statement Wednesday expressing disappointment over the penalties handed down to its four NASCAR Cup Series teams and announcing its intention to appeal them.

“On Friday at Phoenix Raceway, NASCAR identified louvers on our race cars during a voluntary inspection 35 minutes after the opening of the garage and prior to on-track activity," the statement began. "NASCAR took possession of the parts approximately four hours later with no prior communication. The situation had no bearing on Saturday’s qualifying session or Sunday’s race.”

Kyle Larson won the pole at Phoenix Raceway and led a race-high 201 laps. William Byron won the race, his second victory in as many weeks. Hendrick Motorsports drivers combined to lead 265 of 317 laps at Phoenix.

Hendrick Motorsports said they would appeal the L2-level penalty based on facts that include:

• Louvers provided to teams through NASCAR’s mandated single-source supplier do not match the design submitted by the manufacturer and approved by NASCAR

• Documented inconsistent and unclear communication by the sanctioning body specifically related to louvers

• Recent comparable penalties issued by NASCAR have been related to issues discovered during a post-race inspection

More NASCAR

Talladega produces familiar frustration for Cup Series field

Bowman content with third-place finish at Talladega

Hocevar rises at Talladega for emotional first NASCAR Cup Series victory

Despite the appeal, Hendrick Motorsports officials have not asked for a deferral of the four-race suspensions of its four crew chiefs. Those will begin this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

NASCAR officials fined Hendrick Motorsports a total of $400,000 (a $100,000 fine to each crew chief) for the confiscated louvers from its cars. All four teams were docked 100 points and 10 playoff points, and three of its drivers (excluding the injured Chase Elliott) were docked 100 driver points.