McDowell, Spire Penalized for Modifying Splitter During Inspection

There's some significant trouble looming for driver Michael McDowell and the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet this weekend at Kansas Speedway, and it comes even before the driver and team have hit the racetrack for NASCAR Cup Series practice.

On Saturday, just before the beginning of the second-half of practice, NASCAR confirmed that Spire Motorsports had failed pre-race technical inspection multiple times. Typically, this would result in a smaller (but standard) penalty, where the impacted team would lose pit selection and have a crew member (typically the car chief) ejected for the duration of the race weekend.

However, in this particular instance, as NASCAR shared in their inspection report, there are some additional extenuating circumstances here.

“On their second attempt through inspections after passing all stations, the No. 71 team was observed making an unapproved adjustment to the splitter. The struts were reinstalled, and the car was rerun over the USS and failed due to the adjustment.”

Travis Peterson -- crew chief of the No. 71 Gainbridge Chevrolet -- has been ejected for the remainder of the Hollywood Casino 400 race weekend, and in addition to losing pit selection for Sunday's event, Michael McDowell will have to start at the rear of the field and serve a stop-and-go penalty once the race begins.

It's unlikely that additional penalties will be assessed to Michael McDowell or Spire Motorsports in a mid-week penalty report.

In the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway, William Byron and Hendrick Motorsports (the eventual regular-season champions) were caught making adjustments to the splitter of the No. 24 Chevrolet. While the pre-race penalty was the exact same, there were no additional consequences following the end of the race weekend.

Cody Ware and Rick Ware Racing's No. 51 Ford Mustang Dark Horse also failed pre-race inspection multiple times on Saturday, and will receive the standard penalty for that infraction -- the loss of pit selection for Sunday's event and the ejection of car chief Dave Jones.

The Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway will take place on Sunday, September 28 at 3:00 PM ET. Coverage of the event will be on USA Network, Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.