By: Ashley McCubbin

Jimmie Johnson may have crossed the finish line in second, but he will be credited with a 40th-place finish.

Following the Coca-Cola 600, his No. 48 Chevrolet failed post-race inspection, with the rear alignment numbers not matching up in the optical scanning station.

“It’s the same thing that we check at least a handful of cars for post-race after every event. I can’t really give specifics on the numbers,” NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Jay Fabian said. “Yes, there is a pre-race number and a post-race number that does give a pretty decent tolerance. It was outside of those post-race numbers.

As with any penalty, Johnson’s team can elect to go through the appeal process, however Hendrick Motorsports has not made any indication of doing that thus far. Instead, crew chief Cliff Daniels shared a tweet following the disqualification on the possible justification for the failure.

Though according to Fabian, the allowance that NASCAR has in-place is “built in for parts that move,” and a team must match that – whether a part breaks or not.

“There is no real parameter outside of that,” he commented. “here’s parts in the past that have been designed to failure break. Certainly not suggesting that’s the case here. But that’s what’s gotten us to this hardline of this is a post-race number and there is a fair tolerance from pre-race numbers to post.”

This marks the first disqualification in the NASCAR Cup Series this season. The sanctioning body announced last year that any driver who failed post-race inspection would have their finishing position, and points taken away.

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