HAMPTON, Ga. -- Martin Truex Jr. will have to start on the last row in the NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway after his car failed to pass technical inspection prior to the qualifying Friday.
Truex also will be without his car chief, the crew member who typically is in charge of making sure the correct setup is in the car. Starting this year, NASCAR plans to eject a crew member after a car fails three times, as Truex's car did, in addition to docking the driver 30 minutes of practice time.
If Truex's car had failed a fourth time, it would have been docked 10 points, Miller said. The Furniture Row Racing team did not make a fourth attempt to get through NASCAR's new technical system that scans the body of the car.
With 36 drivers entered for the race, Truex will start in 35th (Harrison Rhodes did not take a qualifying lap).
"It's a new process, we're working hard -- collectively, the whole garage is -- to figure the boundaries out and how to get through," Furniture Row Racing general manager Joe Garone said. "NASCAR is working with their equipment the same way.
"It's just tough. One time you go through, the next time you don't [pass] -- you go through again and some things that didn't pass the time before. It's just frustrating. We'll get it all worked out."
Scott Miller, NASCAR's senior vice president, said there were no problems with the consistency of the technical bay.
"What we failed the times we failed it were 100 percent data," Miller said. "We had 20 people make it through on their first attempt and multiple people saying how consistent rear-wheel alignment was versus our equipment last year."
Last year, NASCAR had some races where several cars failed to get through tech prior to qualifying.
"Now that we have the equipment, and it's much more data, ... it's pretty hard to dispute, so there's no real way to fake your way through there." Miller said.