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The NASCAR Cup series has explained how 13 cars failed post-qualifying inspection at Pocono last weekend, with championship contenders Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick two of the drivers penalised.
NASCAR has introduced a much more thorough inspection process system for 2018, using an optical scanning station, which uses lasers to map and check vehicle bodies to ensure legality.
The system had been used for qualifying only once previously this season at Chicago, where four cars were penalised.
Stewart-Haas Racing’s Harvick had taken pole ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Busch but he failed the body scan section of the inspection and Busch failed the chassis element, elevating Daniel Suarez to pole position.
“It’s pretty obvious what’s happened here. There were 13 cars that didn’t pass the post-qualifying inspection,” said Scott Miller, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition.
“Most of the problems were centred around the body scan, but not all.
“Some were mechanical measurements with the rear toe, but quite heavy on the body scans, [with the] 13 cars.
“We’re disappointed in this, but we’re certainly confident in our process and the teams didn’t do a real good job here.”
NASCAR has had a string of inspection failures in 2018 and teams have employed various tactics in an attempt to get around the system, and the topic was raised at Kentucky earlier this month by various media outlets.
Miller was asked if the severity of the penalties would increase after more failures, but said: “This is only the second time we’ve done this [after the first attempt at Chicago] and I don’t think the teams want to be sitting here in this situation, either.
“But I think they tested the waters and it didn’t work out too good for them.
“So, hopefully, the next time we have one of these inspections, they’ll be able to get closer to right and we won’t have this.”