On Tuesday afternoon, CARS Tour officials announced that Treyten Lapcevich had been disqualified from last Saturday’s “Window World 125” at North Wilkesboro Speedway after it had appeared that the Canadian rookie had scored his first series victory. Since the announcement was made, there’s been a lot of speculation, finger-pointing and accusations levied towards the series. So much so that CARS Tour co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. decided to address it on the video version of his podcast, the “Dale Jr. Download.”

“There’s been a bit of controversy since the race,” Earnhardt began. “Treyten, driving for Chad Bryant, they’ve been fast and we’re thrilled that Chad is part of the series. He’s put out some awesome cars for a lot of really cool drivers over the years.”

Earnhardt Jr. went on to explain that the reason Lapcevich and his Chad Bryant Racing team were disqualified was because of an illegal rear end in their No. 77 machine.

“Treyten has been running well and finally appeared to have won the race this past weekend, but it was discovered that he had a nine inch Ford rear end housing, and those are not legal. It’s in the rule book, and it clearly says you have to run a quick-change rear end housing. It’s not debatable. It’s black-and-white.”

In the CARS Tour press release announcing the penalty on Tuesday, CARS Tour officials described the situation as the team “misinterpreting the rule as it is printed.” Soon after the release was sent out, Lapcevich himself took to social media site “X” (formerly Twitter) to say, “I will assure everyone that that is a lie.”

Team owner Chad Bryant also himself addressed the issue in a statement given to Short Track Scene in which he said, “It was a miscommunication between series officials and the team. I’m disappointed with the CARS Tour’s decision and in the coming days, we do plan to file appeal. In my 30 years of motorsports, Chad Bryant as an employee or an entity has never been disqualified from any motorsports event ever.”

On his podcast, Earnhardt Jr. explained that over the last year-and-a-half since he, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, and Justin Marks bought the CARS Tour, the ownership group has made a variety of changes to the rule book and the way the Tour operates in an effort to “eliminate or alleviate hassle or unnecessary hassle, not just in the rule book, but all other protocols. Parking, practice days, there is a lot of things changing in the series to try to make it streamlined and better.” 

Earnhardt Jr. said that the rule that CBR broke was a new rule for the 2024 season.

“This particular rule is new this year,” Earnhardt Jr. explained. “I think Chad Bryant and his team were not trying to come in and cheat. They read this rule or interpreted this rule a certain way. When you see it in the rule book, it’s pretty clear what you’re expected to do. Knowing Chad and his team, I don’t think they were trying to sneak it in under the radar, and I don’t want to pile on too much because they are a valuable asset to the series. All our teams are.

“As unfortunate as it is, we feel like for the integrity of the series moving forward, we have to make this choice because it was an obvious advantage to run this part. All of our teams would want us to withhold the integrity of the series, even at the fear of what kind of criticism you might get from it. But we feel like that was the best decision we had to make.”

Lapcevich is the fourth driver in the last two seasons to have a win taken away, and second driver in the last two seasons to have it taken away as a result of a post-race technical infraction. 

Most recently, Ryan Millington had his apparent win at Hickory Motor Speedway two races ago taken away for a rough driving penalty. Gavan Boschele also had a win taken away for the same reason last fall at Tri-County Motor Speedway. And in July of 2023, Layne Riggs and his Kevin Harvick Inc. team were disqualified days after the race at Caraway Speedway for a post-race technical infraction.

The CARS Tour will be back in action on Friday, August 16 for a doubleheader at Altamahaw, North Carolina’s Ace Speedway. That race has been postponed one week due to the expected impacts from Hurricane Debby. Race fans can watch that race and every remaining CARS Tour race live on FloRacing with a FloRacing subscription. Fans can subscribe to FloRacing by clicking here.