Aric Almirola, Richard Petty Motorsports hit with costly penalty by NASCAR

Aric Almirola was docked 35 points and crew chief Drew Blickensderfer suspended three races and fined $65,000 for a post-race Laser Inspection failure concerning the rear wheel steer following a fourth-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday.

Almirola told NBC Sports Network earlier this week that his No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford was .01 of an inch beyond NASCAR tolerance. The penalty conformed with the norm for LIS failures this season.

RPM was also penalized 35 owner points. The penalty was covered in Sections 20.17.3.1.2 “Post-Race General Inspection Measurements” of the NASCAR rule book.

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Almirola seemed resigned to the eventual outcome in the NBCSN interview, saying teams must explore opportunities to gain advantage and added, “If we just built a car well within the measurements and tolerances, we’d run 30th every week.”

The fourth-place finish matched a season-high for Almirola, who also finished fourth at the season-opening Daytona 500 — like Talladega, a restrictor-plate race. Almirola fell from on the cusp of the playoff boundary at 17th place to 21st in driver points.

""We accept NASCAR's decision and will continue to work to get the most out of our race cars every week while maintaining the NASCAR rulebook," Philippe Lopez, Director of Competition at Richard Petty Motorsports, said in statement. We look forward to Kansas this weekend."

Almirola won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega Saturday.

Follow James on Twitter @brantjames

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