William Byron Texas point penalty rescinded by Appeals Panel, monetary fine increased

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     William Byron will only be fined $100K following today’s decision, made by the National Motorsports Appeals Panel concerning a penalty the No. 24 team acquired at Texas Motor Speedway.

In NASCAR’s penalty report, Wednesday following the “Autotrader Echopark Automotive” 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, Byron was originally served a $50K fine with a 25 points penalty. In today’s appeal of the penalty, Byron and Hendrick Motorsports were able to eliminate the impactful points penalty.

William Byron originally received this penalty due to his actions under caution at Texas Motor Speedway, two weeks ago. In reaction to hard racing between William Byron and Denny Hamlin, Byron under caution sent a hard bump to Hamlin’s No. 11 machine. This bump sent the No. 11 car spinning through the infield, while the yellow flag still flew.

Denny Hamlin was required to restart in the 22nd position, losing 20 positions from Byron’s contact.

NASCAR officiating did not issue any on-track penalty to Byron following the incident.

Three days later, NASCAR would issue the aforementioned monetary fine and points penalty to William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports and the No. 24 team.

Now, with the decision of the National Motorsports Appeals Board, an amendment has been to the penalty made that does not have any playoff implications for Byron.

This decision has received a poor response from some NASCAR fans. Particularly, fans of Denny Hamlin or those who disliked Byron’s actions feel that the rescinding of the points penalty is unjustified. A more general consensus is that this decision opens the door for aggressive actions on track to go without rightful punishment.

In Byron’s situation, the results may have been intended. In the future, intention might be clear, but prescient could un-rightfully protect dangerous on-track activity of others.

 

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