Kurt Busch’s No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford and Paul Menard’s No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford failed Sunday morning’s pre-race inspection at Watkins Glen International. Their speeds from Saturday’s Busch Pole Qualifying have been disallowed.
Busch and Menard will start at the rear of the field for Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen (3 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM). NASCAR officials said that Busch’s car failed at the handheld template station while Menard’s car failed the mechanical measurements.
Busch was originally slated to start 21st while Menard was 14th. Busch will start ahead of Menard on the basis of their rank in the points standings.
Denny Hamlin won the provisional pole in Saturday qualifying and will share the front row with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch, last week’s winner at Pocono Raceway. Both of their cars passed inspection and retained their positions.
The post-qualifying inspection process is being used for the third time in Monster Energy Series competition. Four cars had their qualifying speeds thrown out at Chicagoland Speedway in June, and 13 were demoted to the rear of the field last weekend at Pocono.
The procedures were adjusted this weekend at Watkins Glen, with officials impounding the field Saturday evening and shifting inspection to race-day morning.