Kyle Busch and the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team were penalised late in the season at Richmond Raceway, according to NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran.

Grille tape of any form is not allowed on cars in the Next Generation era. Busch was black-flagged by NASCAR on Lap 345 of the 400 for taping the grille.

The tape on the grille was an error, according to the crew, and was intended for a brake duct. Despite the punishment, Busch finished ninth.

Joe Gibbs, the team’s owner, indicated after the race that he had not yet spoken with NASCAR about the punishment, but that he intended to. “I think the point was, when that happened, if that was a penalty, then address it. It wasn’t till I think two stops later. I think that’s our concern of, you know, because that would have completely changed their strategy So I think that will be something we discuss and go over.”

NASCAR clarifies the reason behind the postponement

The tape was put on Lap 128 and given notice of race officials on Lap 234, according to NASCAR. The punishment was not called for another 111 laps while NASCAR checked video to establish that the squad had put the tape on and that it was not debris Busch had picked up along the way.

“We certainly needed to do our due diligence on how it got there and what it really was,” Moran said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

“So we went back while the race was going on obviously and did our due diligence to ensure, first of all, that the team placed the tape on the grille area. We did go back, found footage, found what we needed to say, yes, the team actually put it on. Unfortunately, they had a couple of stops, which they could have pulled it off and we probably wouldn’t even be talking about it today, but that didn’t happen.

He continued: “We got notification around Lap 234 and it took a bit of time, obviously. A lot of green-flag racing at a 3/4-mile track. It takes a while to pull that up and we do our due diligence. The last thing we’re going to do is bring a vehicle down and find out later that it was something picked up off the track or they grabbed it on pit road or something to that fact, but once everything was sorted out, we did see how it happened, where it was and the crew chief was notified that it does has to be removed.”

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