Byron barred from NASCAR Cup qualifying after three inspection failures

Byron’s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet failed pre-race inspection three times on Friday with an issue with the right-front fender area of the car showing up in the body scan.

The team confirmed it passed on its fourth attempt.

With the three-time failure, Byron will not be allowed to qualify on Saturday and will have to start Sunday’s race from the rear of the field. He will be allowed to participate in Saturday’s practice.

Also, after taking the green flag in Sunday’s race, Byron will have to serve a pass-through penalty on pit road.

In addition, the team’s car chief has been ejected from the track for the remainder of the weekend.

With three races left in the regular season, Byron is third in the points standings, 96 points behind leader Martin Truex Jr. He still has a chance to capture the regular-season championship.

So far this season, Byron leads the series in wins (four), average starting position (9.65) and stage wins (seven). He also has led a single-season career-best 81src laps (second-most this season).

The 25-year-old native of Charlotte, N.C., has eight top-five and 11 top-1src finishes – both are tied for the third-most in the series.

Byron and his team had hoped to pick up their performance this weekend. After winning at Atlanta, he has three finishes of 21st or worse in the last four races and a best effort of 14th.

“We’ve had a trying couple of races these last few weeks but there’s no quit in this team,” said crew chief Rudy Fugle. “We keep bringing fast race cars and doing what we can to get good results, some things just happen though.

“Indy (Road Course) is another track where we’ve ran well and circumstances at the end have taken us out of contention.”