Why Anthony Alfredo’s Car was Disqualified

Anthony Alfredo’s No. 62 Beard Motorsports was disqualified from the second Daytona 500 Duel following post-race inspection. Let’s look at why Alfredo’s car was disqualified.

A popular Cinderella story turned to dust well before midnight here in Daytona. After beating the other two open cars in the second Duel, Alfredo’s car was found to have a disconnected transaxle cooling hose and a disconnected driver cooling hose.

What the Heck is a Transaxle Cooling Hose?

The Gen-7 Cup Series car has a transaxle: an oil-cooled combined transmission, differential and rear axle. Circulating oil takes heat from the transaxle and moved it to a single, flat-style, external transaxle oil cooler. The oil cooler transfers the heat from the oil to the surrounding air, which is exhausted under the car

A transaxle oil cooler is essentially a radiator for the transaxle. It performs the same function for the transaxle oil that the radiator performs for the engine oil.

Rule 14.7.3.5.5H allows teams to run at least one but no more than two hoses from a rear quarter window to the transaxle. Air thus comes in the rear hose, goes through the transaxle and exits the rear of the car.

The transaxle hose isn’t a corrugated plastic or rubber hose: it’s a carbon-fiber part designed to operate under high temperature and high pressure.

The photo above is from the press conference and shows Brad Moran, NASCAR’s Cup Series Managing Director and is in charge of inspections holding the disconnected hose.

How Does a Hose Fall Off?

NASCAR does not dictate how the hose is attached, just that it must be attached. Most teams use rivets and tape to ensure the hose stays in place. The Beard Motorsports team used only tape.

The driver cooling hose is a more traditional corrugated hose, which is also required to be attached and air tight.

Pre-race checks ensure that these hoses are in place, so this isn’t something that was missed and then discovered during inspection.

Does It Provide a Competitive Advantage?

It certainly can. At a track where drag is so important, any modification to how air flows in and out of (or over and under) the car can affect speed. That’s why those rules are there: to ensure everyone is operating under the same aerodynamic conditions.

But What if It Was Innocent?

It doesn’t matter. NASCAR makes the point — frequently — that they do not try to infer or judge intention. It’s a wise perspective, because it’s impossible to tell whether something is an oversight or a potential cheat.

Beard Motorsports is a small team, even by open-car standards. It’s easy to see how something like this could simply have been an oversight. But rules are rules and no matter how much they might like to give a team the benefit of the doubt, they can’t.

Can’t They Appeal?

They cannot. The Duels are part of the qualifying process, not independent races. The same rules apply to the Duels as applied to Wednesday’s qualifying.