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Facing one of the severest penalties in the NASCAR world, driver-crew chief pairing Chase Briscoe and John Klausmeier have a tough six weeks ahead of them.
Along with driver penalties in light of the Coca-Cola 600, officials seem to be on a roll to implement and enforce the stock car racing rulebook on both the drivers and their teams.
It's worth noting that Chase Elliott has been suspended from the coming weekend's race at World Wide Technology Raceway. On the back of that, Chase Briscoe and the #14 crew have been dealt with one of NASCAR's harshest reprimands.
Taking the brunt of this violation is Chase Briscoe's crew chief John Klausmeier. The UMBC graduate with a mechanical engineering degree has worked with Aric Almirola in the past before Briscoe signed up with the team.
The driver-crew chief pairing won their first race last season at Pheonix Raceway, which was also Briscoe's first victory in the sport.
The 42-year-old developed a knack for cars and the technical side of automobiles as the Perry Hall, Maryland native was surrounded by his family-owned auto shop. Klausmeier also took a liking for auto racing as he used to spend his childhood racing lawnmowers around a small dirt-oval at his grandfather's ranch.
Now in charge of cars that blast down superspeedways in excess of 200mph, he seems to have come full-circle in his automotive conquest.
Why have Chase Briscoe and the #14 team been penalized by NASCAR?
The #14 crew at Stewart-Haas Racing has been found in violation of modifying/altering a single source supplied part handed to every team by NASCAR. The part in question is the NACA duct used to keep the engine cool on the cover, which was found to be counterfiet by the officials.
Crew chief of the #14 team at SHR, John Klausmeier, has been fined $250,000 along with a six-week suspension for counterfeiting. The team and driver have also been stripped of 120 regular-season points as well as 25 playoff points as a part of the L3 level penalty.
The discrepancies with the #14 Ford Mustang of Chase Briscoe were uncovered on Monday. This came as the car was taken to the NASCAR R&D Center after last weekend's rain-delayed race.
Hoping to make it into the playoffs two years in a row, Briscoe's performance is bound to be hampered by the penalties, along with an interim crew chief being set in place.
it remains to be seen how the 28-year-old driver manages to overcome this setback early into the 2023 season.
