NASCAR: Sonoma Penalty report

NASCAR officials issued penalties Tuesday to a pair of NASCAR Cup Series teams stemming from violations during last weekend’s events at Sonoma Raceway.

No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet crew chief Cliff Daniels and crew members Donnie Tasser and Brandon Johnson have been suspended from the next four events, through New Hampshire Motor Speedway’s race weekend on July 17. Kyle Larson’s No. 5 machine lost a tire on Sunday at the California road course, a violation of Section 10.5.2.6: Loss or separation of an improperly installed tire/wheel from the vehicle.

Hendrick will not appeal the penalty.

Separately, Rick Ware Racing and Cody Ware have been penalized with the loss of 20 NASCAR Cup Series championship team owner and driver points after multiple inspection failures. The No. 51 team failed pre-qualifying inspection four times, sending Ware to the rear of the field to start Sunday’s race and mandating a pass-through penalty after the green flag.

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NASCAR is revising its upcoming schedule, eliminating practice for both Cup and Xfinity.

Both will feature single-car, two-round qualifying without any practice. This is similar to Talladega and Daytona-August.

NASCAR reporter Bob Pockrass has the latest on the schedule changes:

“With Atlanta racing like Daytona/Talladega, NASCAR has revised the schedule for the race next month to eliminate practice for both Cup and Xfinity,” he said. “Will just do single-car, two-round qualifying (no practice), like Talladega and Daytona-August.”

Pockrass added a bit of explanation regarding the changes:

“For Atlanta, would expect Xfinity and Cup qualifying on Saturday to run from mid-morning to early afternoon because the truck race at Mid-Ohio is 1:30 p.m. and wouldn’t want them to conflict,” he added. “Then Xfintiy race is listed as 5p ET Saturday start.”

“… Not having practice at Daytona-Talladega-Atlanta is a combination of not wanting to potentially tear up equipment practicing in the draft as well as teams often opting not to practice in the draft anyway.”