When winning is the need of the hour, teams do tend to get desperate. And that desperation often finds its momentum in making undue adjustments to the cars before the races. After all, there is not really a huge room for a driver to dominate his opponents solely based on speed, thanks to the usher of the Next Gen cars. Hence, NASCAR tends to be extremely strict with its punishments.

If a team comes under the radar of NASCAR, it is either getting a big chunk of their championship points sliced off, a penalty, or in the worst-case scenario, a suspension. One such record-breaking penalty scarred a bigshot NASCAR team a few months into the current season. On that note, a veteran NASCAR expert shared his opinions on the way NASCAR levies its fines and how far they are justified.

Insider hinted at NASCAR’s increasing transparency regarding its penalties

The most recent penalty that Tony Stewart‘s driver for the number 4 Ford Mustang received, which snatched away his P2 finish at Talladega Superspeedway, has attracted the attention of every NASCAR enthusiast. Despite showing race-winning speed and finishing merely 0.012 seconds behind winner Ryan Blaney, Kevin Harvick‘s car failed to qualify in the post-race inspection and hence got disqualified.

Back at the Martinsville Speedway in April, RCR speedster Austin Dillon faced an L1 penalty for violating a rule that falls under the “Underwing Assembly Mounting & Underwing Stay Assembly Hardware” section of NASCAR’s rulebook. Moreover, the #2 team lost 60 driver and owner points, along with 5 playoff points. Dillon’s crew chief Keith Rodden stayed out from the next two championship races and was fined $75,000. However, when NASCAR slammed Hendrick Motorsports with a whopping $400,000 penalty after finding modified parts in his cars, fans wondered whether it was the right decision to make.

Oftentimes, fans stay in the dark about whether the penalties are legitimate or not. And it is unlikely that a usual NASCAR fan can get into the nooks and corners of the ultramodern technology used in the stock cars and judge if it was the team’s fault at all. But not anymore.

FOX Sports journalist Bob Pockrass spoke to Kenny Wallace regarding the increasing transparency in NASCAR?s decisions, which reveal why such extreme steps are justified. He said, “They’ve now started showing us parts and pieces. Last weekend, they showed us the photo of Kevin Harvick’s windshield and then they showed how difficult it would be for it to come loose during a race.”

“Certainly, it’s their side of it but…I like the fact that they’re at least showing us what’s wrong and explaining to us what’s wrong…you can make the fans a little bit more educated on whether those fines are just or not,” he added.

Despite the penalties, Hendrick Motorsports is still at the top of its game. Recently, Rick Hendrick & Co. passed a major milestone of 300 Cup Series wins. Interestingly, when NASCAR slapped penalties on William Byron and Alex Bowman back in April, Rick Hendrick wasn’t ready to bow before NASCAR.

Rick Hendrick denied appealing for a penalty as NASCAR took further steps to ensure clarity

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NASCAR took away the #48 and the #24 HMS cars to its R&D Center in Concord after the race at Richmond, suspecting illegal modifications in the center (greenhouse) area of the car. As a penalty, NASCAR docked 60 points each, along with 5 playoff points for both Bowman and Byron.

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However, according to AP NEWS, Hendrick Motorsports said, “The area of the race cars NASCAR focused on is not related to our performance on the track.”

To ensure more clarity regarding its decisions, NASCAR has revamped its penalty appeals process. According to the new process, an appeal panel will no longer be able to fully revoke any aspect of a penalty. In other words, it can reduce the time of suspension, penalty, or the number of points docked, but it cannot completely rescind it.

Besides that, NASCAR also plans to show the illegally modified parts to the media to ensure that everyone knows what the guilty team has done wrong.

Read more: Should NASCAR Continue Running on Road Courses or Limit Itself to Oval Layouts?