Only in NASCAR can one championship winning organization suspend crew members from one of their chief rivals during a given season and it seem completely normal.

But that’s what happened on Wednesday when Joe Gibbs Racing suspended two tire changers from Furniture Row Racing’s No. 78 team over an altercation with Gibbs crew chief Adam Stevens on Sunday during the Brickyard 400.

Gibbs has the power to do so because it supplies personnel and equipment to Furniture Row as part of a technical alliance that began last season. But having the power to do so doesn’t imply the right to exercise it.

In fact, this decision completely reeks of Gibbs putting Furniture Row back in their place as No. 2 on the Toyota hierarchy.

The decision to suspend tire changers Chris Taylor and Lee Cunningham makes some degree of sense because they are technically Gibbs employees mouthing off in public to a senior Gibbs crew chief. However, Stevens escaping punishment very much seems like a political statement.

After all, Stevens escalated the confrontation by choosing to take a step into another team’s pit box and engage with its crew.

Was Taylor and Cunningham supposed to simply say, 'yes sir, sorry sir?'

Truex and his team is racing for a championship -- no different than Busch and Stevens. In fact, this looks even worse because Furniture Row has outperformed their Toyota partner. If you can't beat them, find a reason to penalize them, right?

You can make the argument that Stevens should have kept walking and handled the conflict in-house. If Taylor and Cunningham were culpable in the eyes of JGR, Stevens deserves every bit of the same blame for what happened.

If professionalism is the standard in question, then it needed to be enforced against both sides.

But again, this speaks to a larger issue.

Joe Gibbs Racing is treating Furniture Row like their B-team rather than an equal partner. What if this happens again during the playoffs?

What about Truex?

Is he supposed to race the four Gibbs cars more carefully now?

Based on the decision made on Wednesday, JGR has sent a reminder to Furniture Row that they are no better than a satellite program and ultimately answer to the decision-makers in Huntersville, North Carolina.

That shouldn’t go over well in Denver.

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