Joe Gibbs Racing won't appeal penalty against Kyle Busch's crew chief

The lug-nut penalty handed down by NASCAR against Kyle Busch's crew chief will not be appealed, Joe Gibbs Racing said Wednesday.

Adam Stevens was fined $20,000 earlier Wednesday and will miss next weekend's race at Dover for violating a lug-nut policy that is only weeks old. The infraction was discovered after Busch won Saturday's race in Kansas.

"Joe Gibbs Racing announces today it will not appeal the penalty issued by NASCAR earlier this afternoon to its No. 18 team. (Busch's) team utilized unaltered stock lug nuts during Saturday night's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway and each wheel had all five lug nuts attached to the wheel at the conclusion of the race," JGR said in a statement released Wednesday, via the Charlotte Observer. "The team does acknowledge that not all lug nuts were tightened to the wheel."

Josh Leslie, Busch's front-tire changer, also was suspended one race and both he and Stevens were placed on probation through Dec. 31.

The new rule was put in place after Tony Stewart complained in April about teams not using all five lug nuts and sometimes not fully tightening the ones that were used. Stewart was fined $35,000 for his comments.