NASCAR underwent pre-race inspection on Saturday morning for the 40-car contingent of Cup cars. As the theme has been this year, 2 cars earned penalties — The No. 10 of Ty Dillon and the No. 16 of AJ Allmendinger. These teams failed inspection twice, thus forcing them to lose pit selection and resulting in the ejection of their car chiefs. This is to be clarified — car chiefs, not crew chiefs.
Pre-race penalties have been a theme this season. Including Talladega, there have now been 16 cars to fail pre-race inspection over the 10-race to-date season. The pace is now far beyond that of 2025, when 14 failures occurred all season. In 10 races, we have exceeded the total from all 36 races a year ago.
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Why Are So Many Cars Failing Inspection?
The answer is quite unknown as of now. Speculation ranges from NASCAR tightening its inspection processes to teams being more aggressive and the overall sensitivity of the NextGen car.
It should be noted that many of the 2026 failures have been among lower-tier drivers. Dillon and Allmendinger have now been penalized twice, while other instances include Cole Custer, Chad Finchum, Timmy Hill, and Michael McDowell. That perhaps points to, yet does not confirm, those teams to test the limits of aggression.
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Two Cars Fail Pre-Race Inspection
Garage area after the canceled qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series at Talladega Superspeedway. (Photo by David Jensen/Getty Images)Photo by David Jensen/Getty Images
The No. 10 car of Ty Dillon has lost its pit stall selection as well as its car chief. The penalty is relatively low-impact since Dillon starts in 35th place, with an extremely low-leverage pit-stall selection.
The No. 16 of AJ Allmendinger suffers the same fate. He starts in 28th place, thus also with a low-impact loss of pit stall selection.
Generally, unless a team is starting in the top-10, the pit stall selection will not be as ideal, with a higher focus on pitting next to teammates rather than a specific pit road location.
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NASCAR Cup Series: Jack Link’s 500 Qualifying Results/Starting Positions
This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Apr 25, 2026, where it first appeared in the Racing section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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