NASCAR Announces 'Big Penalty' After The Daytona 500

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NASCAR Announces 'Big Penalty' After The Daytona 500

Originally posted on The Spun | By Chris Rosvoglou | Last updated Feb 19, 2025 5:59 PM ET

The NASCAR Cup Series kicked off its new season with the Daytona 500 this past Sunday. William Byron beat out the competition to win the race for the second straight year.

Byron became the first back-to-back winner of the Daytona 500 since Denny Hamlin in 2019 and 2020. He benefitted from a massive crash that took out a few drivers, including Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric and Alex Bowman.

Speaking of Briscoe, he received a harsh penalty this Wednesday. Not only has he been docked 100 points, his crew chief has been suspended for the next four races. This is because his team made modifications to his car's spoiler.

"Big penalty to Chase Briscoe for modification to the spoiler: Docked 100 points, 10 playoff points and crew chief James Small suspended for four races," NASCAR reporter Bob Pockrass wrote. "Team also has been fined $100,000."

This is a devastating blow to Briscoe, who was sitting at 33 points prior to this Wednesday's announcement. He's now well below every other driver in the Cup Series standings.

Despite being involved in a huge collision during the Daytona 500, Briscoe felt fairly good about his outlook for the 2025 season.

"I didn't need us all to come together you know. I think I was going to run second if we all didn't crash," Briscoe said, via Sportskeeda. "Denny was going to win. I was going to ship Denny to the win. I was going to run second. Then we all three just kind of met in the middle and I haven't seen a replay yet, but that's what at least it felt like. We would obviously love to win the race, right? But to come out of here, you know, safe in one piece you know, thanks to the Lord above. That's always nice here. And then just to start our season off, you know, the top five are on is a good, you know, momentum started for us."

We'd have to imagine Briscoe's mindset has changed after receiving today's penalty.

The Cup Series will resume on Feb. 23 with the Ambetter Health 400.

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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