The term “spoiler” was more apt than either Ryan Preece or Joey Logano knew after they both finished in the top five in last Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Subsequently, during post-race inspection, infractions involving that key part of the car spoiled excellent runs and resulted in the disqualification of both their cars.
On Logano’s fifth-place No. 22 Team Penske Ford, a nut was missing from a bolt connecting a brace (specific to superspeedway cars) that holds the rear spoiler firmly in place. The missing nut itself is cause for disqualification, as it violates a rule that mandates all components being in place for the entire race.
After Preece’s No. 60 Roush Fenway Keselowski Ford failed pre-race inspection once, along with more than 29 other cars, his team inserted a third shim (a thin metal part that runs the length of the spoiler and sits between the base and the spoiler blade) to correct the amount of deflection to legal limits (1.5 degrees).
Only two shims are allowed under NASCAR rules, and Preece was disqualified from second place because of the infraction.
“Pretty cut-and-dried, black-and-white,” said NASCAR Cup Series director Brad Moran. “Unfortunate. The 60 had a great race. Same with the 22. But we have to do our job to keep the parity in the field.
“Everybody knows the rules. This is our job to find things like this and clean it up.”
Preece was driving his motor home when he heard the news of the disqualification.
“I was about an hour-and-a-half, two hours in when I got the call that we got disqualified, and the next four hours were pretty miserable,” Preece said before Saturday’s Cup practice at Texas Motor Speedway.
“It was just an oversight, to meet their rule and get through tech. But it is a rule.”
