Joey Logano serving pass-through penalty to start Ambetter Health 400 due to unapproved gloves
After qualifying on the front row, Joey Logano will now start in the rear and serve a pass-through penalty to begin the Ambetter Health 400. Ahead of the Atlanta race, NASCAR penalized Logano for having unapproved gloves.
The gloves did not meet “SFI specification” violating rule 14.3.1.1 of the NASCAR Rule Book. This is a bizarre ruling and not one we see often. However, it appears the sanctioning body is cracking down on safety equipment like gloves.
Joey Logano won this race in March of last year. He has a fast car, but now will be in a hole to begin the race. He will have to earn it the hard way today if he wants to repeat his win.
Chris Knight of CatchFence reports that NASCAR informed the media the glove was “altered” in order to gain a competitive advantage when blocking air with his hand. NASCAR is going to give out more information likely next week.
When you think of safety equipment being unapproved, it usually means it is out of date. However, it appears that something was altered in the glove that does not coincide with the SFI standards. Perhaps this glove was made in a way that allowed Logano to block more air than he normally would be able to while sticking his hand up to the window net.
Joey Logano hit with big penalty, with more likely to come
In this situation, since the glove was altered purposefully, there could be more than just the at-track penalty. Starting in the rear and then doing a pass-through penalty is going to likely put Logano a couple of laps down. From there, he might never make it back to the lead lap today.
Aside from that, Logano is going to have to worry about further penalties. NASCAR has been hard on drivers and teams for alterations to the cars. Messing with safety equipment is a whole other thing, though.
We aren’t going to know until NASCAR comes out next week with or without further penalties. However, it does feel like Team Penske is going to get hit with a monetary fine or other punishment.
Joey Logano was one of the favorites to win this race. Now, he likely won’t even have a shot at it. He will have to catch a couple of lucky cautions and hope his car remains fast enough to prevent himself from going even more laps down early on. Not a great start to Sunday for Logano and his group.