NASCAR Managing Director Brad Moran reacts to losing Chase Briscoe appeal

Following the Daytona 500, Joe Gibbs Racing wheelman Chase Briscoe was hit with a 100-point penalty for a modified single source part. However, an appeal returned the points to the No. 19 team, a rarity in the NASCAR Cup Series.

During an appearance on SiriusXM Radio’s The Morning Drive on Tuesday, NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran tried to make sense of the entire situation. He shed some light on why a penalty was given in the first place, and where the sport’s decision-makers stand on the matter moving forward.

“We certainly wouldn’t write a penalty if we didn’t feel it was warranted to start with,” Moran stated. “NASCAR did feel that a penalty was warranted or we certainly wouldn’t have wrote it.

“There is a lot of stuff that gets involved (with) appeals and a lot of discussions on procedures and team procedures and single source supplied parts. It gets quite complicated but we absolutely go back and check everything — our own systems and procedures and if it were to happen the same way, that it would be a penalty again.”

Evidently, NASCAR thought there was enough to hit Briscoe with what was a sizable penalty, but a three-member panel ruled in favor of the team. The restoration of points took Briscoe from last to right in the mix in the Cup Series, where he’s expecting to be now that he’s with one of the best teams in all of the sport.

After the appeal was won, Briscoe was more than relieved. It isn’t every day that you receive 100 points in this sport. Now, instead of being in a massive hole, he can race freely, and attempt to win his way into the playoffs once again in 2025.

“Yeah it’s crazy. The amount of relief I felt, honestly just, I felt like a new man the rest of the week,” Briscoe said over the weekend, via Dustin Long of NBC Sports. “So yeah it’s been nice. Not that our season was over but it kind of felt that way to a certain extent.

“I mean, we could have still won a race, right, and made the playoffs but you’re going to be at such a deficit the whole season. So, yeah, I definitely felt like I got a new life in a sense just because it stings when it’s the first race, right, and you’re kind of buried the whole season. But now I feel like I’m back on a level playing field.”

Alas, Brad Moran and NASCAR thought they made the right decision in penalizing Chase Briscoe, but they were overturned on an appeal. Now, the 30-year old feels like a gigantic weight is off his shoulders, as he moves forward in his first season with Joe Gibbs Racing.

— On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this article.