Penalty costs Almirola
Driver loses points; crew chief receives suspension, fine
Aric Almirola was docked 35 points and crew chief Drew Blickensderfer suspended for three races and fined $65,000 for a postrace laser inspection failure concerning the rear wheel steer after a fourth-place finish Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.
Almirola told NBC Sports Network this week that his No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford was 0.01 of an inch beyond NASCAR tolerance. The penalty conformed with the norm for laser inspection failures this season.
RPM was also penalized 35 owner points. The penalty was covered in Sections 20.17.3.1.2 “Post-Race General Inspection Measurements” of the NASCAR rule book.
Almirola seemed resigned to the eventual outcome in the NBCSN interview, saying teams must explore opportunities to gain advantage and added, “If we just built a car well within the measurements and tolerances, we’d run 30th every week.”
The fourth-place finish matched a season high for Almirola, who also finished fourth in the season-opening Daytona 500 — a restrictor-plate race like Talladega’s. Almirola fell from on the cusp of the playoff boundary at 17th place to 20th in driver points.
“We accept NASCAR’s decision and will continue to work to get the most out of our race cars every week while maintaining the NASCAR rule book,” Philippe Lopez, director of competition at Richard Petty Motorsports, said in statement. “We look forward to Kansas this weekend.”
Almirola won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega on Saturday.
Almirola joins Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and AJ Allmendinger as drivers whose crew chiefs have been suspended for three races this season for various infractions.