NASCAR penalizes Austin Dillon’s team for Martinsville infraction
NASCAR penalized Austin Dillon’s No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team for an infraction found on their Martinsville car.
Officials took Dillon and Ryan Preece’s cars to the NASCAR R&D Center for a teardown after Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway.
The sanctioning body found Dillon’s team used improper hardware when mounting the underwing assembly. As a result, NASCAR hit Dillon and the team with the following L1 penalties:
- Loss of 60 championship points and five playoff points
- Two-race suspension and $75,000 fine for crew chief Keith Rodden
After NASCAR announced those penalties, Richard Childress Racing issued this statement:
“We are disappointed in the penalty that NASCAR issued to Richard Childress Racing following the recent NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway, and plan to go through the appeal process.”
RCR won’t defer Rodden’s suspension, meaning Justin Alexander will be Dillon’s crew chief at Talladega and Dover. Alexander was Dillon’s crew chief from 2017-18 and 2020-22.
Dillon is now 28th in points, 84 points out of a playoff spot with -5 playoff points. He was 21st in points, -24 points to a playoff spot with no playoff points.
The team drops from 22nd to 29th in owner points, also 84 points out of a playoff spot.
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com
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