NASCAR confiscates roof rail deflectors from Stewart-Haas Racing cars

NASCAR announced parts were confiscated from the Nos. 10 and 41 cars on Friday night. The penalties will be announced next week.

Noah Gragson and Ryan Preece – both of Stewart-Haas Racing – both had roof rail deflectors confiscated on Friday ahead of the qualifying session for the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The roof rail detractors are bars that go across the roof of the car to help with aerodynamics.

In addition, NASCAR said Ricky Stenhouse Jr. failed a pre-qualifying inspection twice. He will lose pit selection and his engineer was ejected as a result.

Gragson is coming off a ninth-place finish in last week’s Daytona 500 while Preece came in 25th in the first race of the season – and his first time back at Daytona after a scary crash in August. They both came in at +5000 to win the Ambetter Health 400, according to FanDuel, when the race gets underway Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on FOX.

Stewart-Haas faced penalties related to counterfeit parts last season

Last season, Stewart-Haas faced multiple penalties for using counterfeit parts, and Chase Briscoe received a 120-point penalty for counterfeiting a Next Gen Part during the Coca-Cola 600. NASCAR also issued a six-race suspension for crew chief Johnny Klausmeier and hit him with a $250,000 fine.

“In the post-race inspection at the R&D Center, we found the No. 14 car had an engine panel NACA duct not in compliance with the rule book,” Sawyer told NASCAR.com at the time. “It is a counterfeit part, and that is an L3 penalty. … We need to make sure we’re keeping the teams and the car in compliance. The deterrence model has to fit that, and that’s our responsibility as custodians of the sport and of the garage.

“Don’t mess with a single-source part. Working in areas we used to in the Gen-6 car, is just not going to be acceptable with this car as we move forward. It’s not going to be the culture we’re going to allow.”

William Bryon will be looking to make it 2-for-2 in 2024 after winning the Daytona 500 a week ago, and he’ll have a solid shot at doing so, as he won last season’s race at Atlanta in July. Meanwhile, Joey Logano was the winner in March of last season, so he’ll be looking to get back to Victory Lane in Hampton, Georgia on Sunday.

Steve Samra and Nick Geddes contributed to this report.