The first big penalty of the 2025 Cup Series season has been levied on Chase Briscoe and his team, Joe Gibbs Racing. Inspection in NASCAR’s research and development center after the Daytona 500 found modifications to the spoiler of the No. 19 Toyota Camry XSE. The spoiler is a single-source vendor supply part that should not be changed in any manner.
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The discovery led to an L2-level penalty, which constituted huge fines for the driver and the team. In addition, crew chief James Small has been suspended for four races. Following this, JGR appealed the penalty. Meanwhile, here’s a breakdown of what exactly is the mistake that the team has been accused of committing.
The Cup Series car has a spoiler face atop a tall spoiler base. The base acts as a tool to slow cars down. NASCAR also requires the spoiler angle to be a minimum of 69.9 degrees in superspeedways.
A template placed atop the spoiler ensures that it is positioned perfectly as mandated. All this is done to make the cars go slow on the high-speed tracks.
So, naturally, teams are looking for ways to bypass it. Briscoe’s car passed all the tests in the post-race inspection, but an error glared out during a deeper check in the R&D center.
It has been speculated that a modification was done in the region where the spoiler base meets the trunk lid. The holes in the spoiler base are drilled to match the bolts that connect to the lid. Elongating these holes could allow the spoiler to move relative to the lid. This would result in less air over the spoiler and hence, an increase in speed.
It is highly likely that the promotion found these elongated holes and concluded that they were modified to gain an advantage. The spoiler base is a single-source part manufactured by Roush Advanced Composites.
The holes in the spoiler base are drilled specifically for the bolt sizes used and if they were to become elongated a spoiler could potentially be moved relative to the decklid which could result in less air over the spoiler and an improvement in speed. pic.twitter.com/CgQN81gIUe
— Bozi Tatarevic (@BoziTatarevic) February 20, 2025
So, why would Joe Gibbs Racing appeal the penalty? There is the possibility that the elongation occurred due to wear and tear. The bolts are arranged intricately in the tail, and they all fit extremely tight. This could have resulted in the holes changing shape. Judging from all this, it is hard to say if the modification was intentional or not.
NASCAR has not drawn the curtains on the specific parts that were inspected at the R&D center. The issue will become much clearer when it does. As things stand, Joe Gibbs Racing has been caught in violation of sections 14.1 and 14.5.8 of the rule book. Briscoe finished the Daytona 500 in fourth place.
