Cars of Martin Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson flunk post-race laser inspection
Penalties have been a huge story in NASCAR this year and it didn't take long for the subject to rear its head in the opening race of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
After Sunday's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, the cars of race winner Martin Truex Jr. and 12th-place finisher Jimmie Johnson both flunked NASCAR's laser inspection station (or LIS) twice at what a NASCAR representative said was "the lowest possible level."
Kyle Busch's car flunked LIS once but passed a second time and will not be penalized.
Under the new penalty system announced by NASCAR last week, the violations by the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team (Truex) and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports (Johnson) team will likely constitute a P2-level penalty, with fines of 10 owner and driver points for each team and $15,000 fines for their respective crew chiefs.
But the violations were low enough that Truex's win stands and he will automatically advance to the second round of the Chase.
NASCAR typically announces its final penalties the Wednesday after a race.
Truex's car is headed back to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, along with runner-up Joey Logano's car and Chase Elliott's third-place car, which was chosen as the random.
