TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Furniture Row Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. had a jack bolt confiscated from his car during an inspection before qualifying Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway, but NASCAR's top competition executive said a points penalty is unlikely.
Truex went on to win the pole for the playoff elimination race, turning a lap of 193.423 mph.
NASCAR typically announces penalties Wednesday after the race weekend and has the option of issuing a points penalty that could be 10 to 25 points, depending on how severe NASCAR views the violation.
NASCAR occasionally takes parts from cars and evaluates them after the race weekend in determining the penalty.
But NASCAR's initial reaction was that this would not warrant a points penalty. Scott Miller, NASCAR's senior vice president of competition, compared it to a car failing body measurements before qualifying, then fixing it and going through without penalty or a warning. Miller said it was not a competitive advantage.
"I would say [a points penalty] is unlikely," Miller said. "It has to go through our [evaluation] process. ... It could be [a safety issue], but it wasn't to the point to where we would think it was a safety infraction."
Truex crew chief Cole Pearn said in a tweet Saturday that the jack bolt was a mistake and also indicated it was clearly unintentional because, he said, common sense says center of gravity doesn't matter at Talladega.
A 5.5" LF jackscrew was replaced for a 8" that was mistakenly recessed to where a 5.5" is. Common sense/CG doesn't matter at a superspeedway
— Cole Pearn (@colepearn) October 22, 2016
Truex, who has four wins this season, has a 13-point edge on the current cutoff spot in the standings heading into the final race of the Chase quarterfinal round of 12 Sunday at Talladega.
If Truex is penalized, it could affect whether he advances in the Chase; he could be placed among the four Chase drivers who are winless in the round and have the fewest points.
But if Truex was worried about a penalty, he didn't show it Saturday afternoon. After winning the pole, Truex said he was "calm all day" knowing NASCAR occasionally takes parts from cars.
"All the crazy talk going on today is nonsense," Truex said. "People speculate on things and don't know what they are. The jack bolt issue is really not a big deal. ... It was a part manufacturing issue."
Pearn said he hopes the team does not get a points penalty, but teams are never sure until they get a final decision from NASCAR. The team changed left front springs Friday, and the issue with the new bolt wasn't discovered until they went through tech Saturday.
"It was a stupid mistake," Pearn said. "Obviously, you're not trying to lower the center of gravity on just the left front corner of one part of the car. ... We're not perfect.
"I know people like to think we're brilliant geniuses that have malicious plans to cheat the system somehow, but sometimes we're just stupid and make mistakes."
While initial reports indicated that the bolt was hollow, Pearn said the jack bolt was not.
"It's got threads on the outside and it's got an adjuster where you put it in on top, and it's recessed in to allow the adjuster to go in," Pearn said. "When they broached it down in, it was broached down in too far. Half of [the bolt] was solid, it was just recessed in too far."
Brad Keselowski, in nearly a must-win situation Sunday, qualified second. He won the knockout race in 2014 to stave off elimination and said his best starting position at Talladega bodes well for him.
"I feel like qualifying well is certainly a very strong omen for Talladega and Daytona," he said. "I think all of the races I've won here, we've had good starts and the races that we haven't won or been super-competitive we usually don't have any speed in qualifying, so it's certainly a confidence-builder.
"It's not a guarantee by any means, but a confidence-builder that you carry into this weekend and carry into (the) race."
Matt Kenseth qualified third and was followed by Chase Elliott, who is also in a must-win situation on Sunday. Greg Biffle and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were fifth and sixth, and Roush-Fenway Racing put three of its cars into the final round of qualifying as Trevor Bayne was 11th.
Rounding out the top 12 were Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Paul Menard and Reed Sorenson. It was a huge drop-off for Sorenson, who was the fastest car in the first round of qualifying.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.