NASCAR confirm triple penalty for Cup Series team after Nashville incident

NASCAR has announced a triple penalty for a Cup Series team after a shock incident at Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday.

With all three national NASCAR series in action in Tennessee this weekend, Saturday was qualifying day in the Cup Series, ahead of Sunday's Cracker Barrel 400.

READ MORE: Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace among NASCAR Cup Series stars hit with penalties at Nashville

As is the case every week, ahead of qualifying, each car has to go through pre-qualifying inspection to ensure that their car is legal and within the rules.

All cars must pass within their first two attempts to avoid a penalty. However, ahead of practice and qualifying, NASCAR officials spotted something off with the No. 16 of AJ Allmendinger.

After the team had passed pre-qualifying inspection, officials noticed an unapproved adjustment had been made to their car post-inspection, which is illegal.

READ MORE: NASCAR announce driver disqualification at Nashville as official statement released

NASCAR penalize teams at Nashville

As per an official NASCAR statement: "The No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet team was penalized Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway after an unapproved adjustment was found on the splitter after the team had already passed pre-qualifying inspection."

"Before driver AJ Allmendinger could participate in Cup Series practice at the 1.33-mile oval, competition officials directed the No. 16 to return to the Cup garage and re-run through the Underbody Scanning Station. The team made the necessary adjustments and Allmendinger’s car passed inspection again, but was held for 10 minutes during practice as a penalty."

However, despite being allowed to qualify following his initial penalty, NASCAR has announced further punishments for the No. 16 team.

AJ Allmendinger will be sent to the back of the grid for Sunday's race, losing the 17th position that he had qualified in, whilst car chief Jaron Antley has also been ejected for the remainder of the Nashville race weekend.

On top of that, the No. 16 car must perform a stop-and-go penalty during the race while the track is under green flag conditions.

Chad Finchum and the No. 66 team were also hit with penalties from NASCAR in Nashville, in their instance, for failing pre-qualifying inspection twice.

Their team engineer, Austin Webb, has been ejected as a result, and the team have also lost their pit selection for Sunday's race.

READ MORE: Kyle Busch gets major NASCAR boost as multiple stars demoted after Nashville

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