NASCAR team owner fined $30,000 and suspended for breaking COVID-19 protocols
NASCAR has issued a penalty to team owner Chip Ganassi for breaking the sport’s COVID-19 protocols. Ganassi is the team owner of Chip Ganassi Racing, which fields the No. 1 and No. 42 Chevrolet cars driven by Kurt Busch and Ross Chastain, respectively, in the Cup Series.
According to NASCAR, officials said that Ganassi’s penalty was “for bringing into the competition area a non-essential individual that was restricted from the footprint” during the race weekend at Daytona International Speedway. He was fined $30,000 and, pending any potential appeal, will not be permitted to attend the upcoming Cup race at Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend.
His team’s cars are still permitted to enter Sunday’s race.
In its weekly penalty report, NASCAR declared Ganassi violated Section 12.8.1.b of the NASCAR Rule Book, a subsection of the member conduct guidelines that includes compliance with COVID-19 event procedure.
