Joe Gibbs Racing issued a statement on Monday after declining to fight the penalties they received from NASCAR.
On Sunday, JGR’s Nos. 11 and 18 cars finished 1-2 at the M&M’s Fan Appreciation 400 at Pocono Raceway. But both cars were disqualified after failing post-race inspections, giving the victory to third-place finisher Chase Elliott.
JGR had until midday Monday to appeal NASCAR’s penalties but declined to do so. They issued a statement about the situation and acknowledged the issues with the cars driven by Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.
“In our review of the post-race infractions on the 11 and 18 cars at Pocono it was discovered that a single piece of clear tape was positioned over each of the lower corners of the front fascia ahead of the left-front and right-front wheel openings on both those cars. The added pieces were 2 inches wide and 5.5 inches long with a thickness of 0.012 inches and installed under the wrap. This change in our build process was not properly vetted within our organization and we recognize it is against NASCAR’s rules. We apologize to everyone for this mistake and we have made changes to our processes to ensure that it does not happen again,” JGR competition director Wally Brown said in a statement.
JGR essentially admitted “we got caught.”
Sunday marked the first time since 1960 that a Cup race winner was disqualified. Both the top two finishers in the race were disqualified in this case.