Larson loses rules violation appeal, docked points

Kyle Larson’s KANSAS CIT Y, KAN . appeal of a rules violation from last week’s race at Talladega was denied Friday, a blow to the Chip Ganassi Racing driver’s chances of advancing in NASCAR’s playoffs.

Larson was docked 10 points, crew chief Chad Johnston was fined $25,000 and car chief David Bryant was suspended for Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway after officials determined the team used unapproved metal tabs in violation of NASCAR’s policy on damaged vehicles.

The penalty dropped Larson from 26 points behind the playoff cutoff to 36, meaning the elimination race at Kansas to trim the field to eight is practically a must-win for him.

“I don’t know much about the appeals stuff. I kind of just drive,” Larson said. “Obviously, a 10-point penalty doesn’t help, but I felt like with even being 26 points back we were going to have to go into this week and get a win to make the next round. So it doesn’t mean much to me.”

The expedited appeal on Friday morning was denied by the threeperson panel of Chuck Deery, Dixon Johnston and Cathy Rice. Chip Ganassi Racing planned to make a final appeal, but Larson didn’t seem to care much whether the team was successful.

“I viewed this weekend before as we had to come in here and win,” he said.

Larson was already having a tough day at Talladega when a blown tire led to a spin on Lap 104, which caused some damage to his car. The team wound up using metal tabs to make the repairs, but the damaged vehicle policy states only fasteners or tape can reattach parts.

The repairs were made without NASCAR officials noticing the violations.

Martin Truex Jr. is in the eighth and final playoff spot heading to Kansas Speedway, but Larson has more to make up than just the points. He’d need to leapfrog Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney, who along with Alex Bowman are among the four drivers below the cut line. One thing Larson has going for him is his success at Kansas. He’s finished in the top six in two of his last three races.