Denny Hamlin’s hopes of winning the NASCAR Cup regular season championship have faded and his path to a potential first Cup championship just got tougher after NASCAR slapped him with a hefty penalty Thursday afternoon.

According to Toyota, Hamlin’s March-winning Bristol engine was “accidentally” rebuilt by the manufacturer (Toyota supplies engines to its teams) before NASCAR could disassemble and inspect it.

NASCAR fined Hamlin and his team 75 points, 10 playoff points (points used in qualifying that can help a driver advance in the round) and fined Hamlin’s crew chief Chris Gabehart $100,000.

Because of the penalty, Hamlin, who was third in the standings, just 28 points behind leader Tyler Reddick, dropped to sixth, 103 points behind Reddick with two races left in the regular season. His qualifying points were also reduced from 21 (third overall) to 11 (sixth overall) and he will likely miss out on additional qualifying points awarded based on the final regular season standings.

Toyota Racing Development Chief David Wilson said the manufacturer took full responsibility and that Joe Gibbs Racing was not involved in any of the engine teardowns.

Teams must use a previously used engine — sealed so most components have not been tampered with — in 18 of the 36 regular-season events. Teams competing full-time must submit to NASCAR a schedule of events in which they plan to use a sealed engine before the season begins.

TRD reported the violation itself, and NASCAR issued the penalty that comes with a race-winning engine that was modified before it was inspected.

“TRD is fully responsible for the handling and disposal of all of our engines before and after the race,” Wilson said in a statement. “Despite our established procedures, Denny’s race-winning engine was mistakenly returned from Bristol to Costa Mesa.” [Calif.] The facility was dismantled and rebuilt rather than demolished and inspected by NASCAR in accordance with the rules of the game.

“While we know for certain that the engine was legal and would have passed inspection, we left NASCAR in an impossible position because they were not given the opportunity to properly inspect our engine. We have reviewed our processes and implemented several additional steps to ensure this does not happen again. TRD takes full responsibility for this serious error, and we apologize to Denny, Chris, Coach Gibbs, the entire JGR organization, NASCAR and our fans.”

Bob Pokras covers NASCAR for Fox Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including more than 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @Grasshopper Tree.

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