Penalty reversed: Chase Briscoe wins appeal, gets 100 points back

Chase Briscoe won his appeal Wednesday to a 100-point penalty NASCAR issued after the Daytona 500 for holes in his spoiler base being bigger than when supplied to the team.

A three-member appeals panel overturned the penalty, which had included a four-race suspension to crew chief James Small and a fine of $100,000 to Joe Gibbs Racing.

"The panel believes that the elongation of some of the holes on the No. 19 Cup car spoiler base is caused by the process of attaching that specific spoiler base to the rear deck and not modification of the single source part," the panel said in a statement.

The points reversal vaults Briscoe from last in the standings to a tie for 14th in the standings with 72 points. 

Hearing the appeal were longtime motorsports marketing executive Dixon Johnston, former Speed Channel president Hunter Nickell and former South Boston Speedway general manager Cathy Rice.

NASCAR does not have the option to try to reverse the decision on final appeal — an option available to teams/drivers if they lose an initial appeal.

After bringing Briscoe’s pole-winning Daytona 500 car back to its research and development center following the race, NASCAR found that the holes in the spoiler base used to mount it to the car were bigger than when the piece was supplied. 

Whether it had any impact on performance, NASCAR tends to take a hard line if single-sourced parts are altered and therefore issued a big fine and points penalty to Briscoe and his team. 

JGR indicated that, when bolting in the spoiler base and aligning it with where the holes needed to be on the deck lid using the required bolts, the holes increased in size.

"The issue in question was caused in the assembly process when bolts used to attach the spoiler