Why was Justin Haley disqualified from COTA NASCAR Cup race?

After finishing in 17th place at the Bristol Motor Speedway, Justin Haley continued his good form with Rick Ware Racing in the qualifying rounds of the EchoPark GP, where he grabbed the 13th spot. He followed this hot run at the official race with a finish in the top-20 at Circuit of the America.

Despite a strong performance at the race, Justin Haley was officially disqualified from the race by NASCAR, due to a ‘certain’ reason.

Why was Justin Haley disqualified from COTA race?

On Sunday’s EchoPark Grand Prix, Justin Haley driving his No. 51 Mustang Dark Horse started the race from the 13th position of the starting grid. He earned this after a hard-fought run in the qualifications, delivering Rick Ware Racing’s best-ever qualifying run in their history. However, things did not go as he had expected, and the driver ended up being disqualified for reasons pertaining to the weight of his car.

As the race dragged on, Haley ran in the top 10 for most part of the time, before falling to the 17th spot on the long green flag. In the end, he maintained this position till the ‘black and white’ striped flag was raised and ran away with the 1 point.

As a general rule of thumb, NASCAR usually takes one or two cars back to their R&D headquarters in Concord, N.C., following Cup races. For the Sunday’s race at COTA, it planned to take two cars back with them—Harley’s No. 51 Mustang and Trackhouse Racing’s No. 1 Chevrolet driven by Ross Chastain. These two cars were the subject of various checks, including a weight measurement, before being transported to North Carolina.

However, after a thorough check, it was confirmed that RWR’s No. 51 Mustang Dark Horse, driven by Haley, was lighter than what was allowed in the Cup Series by NASCAR. According to Section 14.11.2 of NASCAR’s Rulebook, the stock car failed to meet the minimum post-race weight requirements.

As a consequence, his performance with the ‘underweight’ car was disqualified, and he fell right into the last spot in the running order.

These ‘harsh but fair’ disqualification for Haley and Rick Ware Racing came hours later after he was spotted speaking in the post-race interviews in the ‘Circuit of the Americas’ grounds.

How did Justin Haley react to disqualification?

Before learning about his disqualification, Justin Haley was caught expressing his thoughts on his car in a post-race interview with Frontstretch. Talking about his car, he stated that his No. 51 Mustang Dark Horse was pretty competitive during the race.

He also touched down on his slow pitstop, that halted his position in the leaderboard. “We had a slow last pit stop, and then we had to save some fuel. We just didn’t get enough fuel into it,” Haley said.

“Overall, it was a good day. I’m kind of liking the positive momentum here we have. I feel like we had a top-10 car,” he concluded, being optimistic with his car.

Following his post-race interview, he took to social media to highlight upon his ‘yellow-on-black’ coated No. 51 car and posted about it on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption: “Another race down in the 51. We had a well-balanced car today, unfortunately we didn’t get the car full on the last stop and had to save fuel during the final run. We are bringing fast cars, and we will put it all together and execute soon. Thanks for the support.”

However, these reactions were made before he learned about his car’s disqualification from the EchoPark race at COTA. As for now, this Indiana native still hasn’t commented on his disqualification, due to which he fell 3 spots in the 2024 Driver’s Standings.

Justin Haley will have another shot at glory with his No. 51 Dark Horse at next weekend’s Toyota Owners 400 race at Richmond.

Should Haley and Rick Ware Racing appeal against NASCAR’s decision? Can he clinch away the pole position at Richmond? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.