Last week, William Byron’s No. 24 and Alex Bowman’s No. 48 were handed L1-level penalties after the cars were taken back to the R&D Center for further inspection..
They were each docked 60 driver points and five playoff points, and the interim crew chiefs were hit with two-week suspensions. There were also fines totaling $150,000. The loss of points cost Bowman the championship lead.
The Hendrick team released the following statement on Monday: “Because we will be best served by devoting our time and resources to competing each weekend, our team will not pursue an appeal of penalties issued on April 6. The area of the race cars NASCAR focused on is not related to our performance on the track.”
HMS had recently won an appeal where 100-point penalties for each of their four teams were completely rescinded. Fines and suspensions were upheld, however. This was done despite the panel concluding that the organization did violate the rulebook.
NASCAR has since updated the appeals process, making that no longer possible. Penalties can only be erased if the panel finds a team to now have violated any rules.