Inspection penalties force strategy shake-up for RFK, NY Racing

NASCAR’s pre-race inspection process at Michigan International Speedway produced a string of failures and penalties that reshaped pit selections, personnel lineups and race preparations for both Cup and Truck teams ahead of the weekend’s events. Multiple teams failed initial inspections, and NASCAR enforced its tiered rules, ejecting team officials and stripping pit selections where prescribed by the inspection policy.

In the Cup ranks, the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford entered for Chris Buescher and the No. 44 NY Racing Chevrolet entered for J.J. Yeley each failed pre-practice and pre-qualifying inspection twice and only passed on a third attempt. Under NASCAR’s rules a second inspection failure carries the loss of pit selection and the ejection of a crew member, and both teams were stripped of pit choice for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 and lost their car chiefs to ejection. Officials identified the removed car chiefs as Joshua Sisco (No. 17) and Lee Leslie (No. 44). Both teams avoided the more severe third-failure penalties, which would have barred qualifying and required a pass-through penalty, and both drivers remained eligible to race. The penalties were expected to complicate RFK Racing’s fuel and pit strategy plans and were described as particularly acute for the smaller NY Racing Team. Some reports identified the removed personnel as crew chiefs; other reports used the term car chief.

On the Truck Series side, only 17 of 36 Craftsman Truck Series entries passed inspection on their first attempt ahead of the DQS Solutions & Staffing 250. A second wave of checks produced 18 of 19 passes, leaving two trucks to resume inspection on Saturday morning, the No. 2 Reaume Bros. Racing Ford driven by Morgen Baird and the No. 34 Front Row Truck driven by Layne Riggs. Reaume Bros. Racing received the largest penalty after Truck Chief Mike Bachand was ejected when the No. 2 failed to complete inspection. NASCAR did not disclose the specific violations affecting the No. 2 and No. 34 entries. The majority of the field cleared inspection and proceeded to on-track activity including practice, qualifying and race setup, but the inspections and resulting penalties altered preparations for the impacted teams as the weekend reached its midpoint and championship contenders such as Corey Heim used the event to build momentum.