No Trophy. No Check. No Problem.

Remember these three great race victories?

April 30, 2017. Richmond, Virginia. Brad Keselowski outruns Denny Hamlin to win the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway for his third victory of the young 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup season.

June 17, 2017. Brooklyn, Michigan. William Byron narrowly beats Elliott Sadler to score his first career Xfinity Series victory in the Irish Hills 250 at Michigan International Speedway.

August 12, 2017. Brooklyn, Michigan. Christopher Bell holds off his hard-charging team owner Kyle Busch to secure his series-leading fifth victory of 2015 in the Camping World Truck Series in the LTi Printing 200 at MIS.

You shouldn’t. None of these scenarios ever happened.

Joey Logano won the Toyota Owners 400 after outdueling teammate Keselowski and leading 25 laps.

Denny Hamlin edged William Byron by 0.012 seconds in a photo finish to win the Irish Hills 250.

Bubba Wallace returned to the Truck Series in triumphant fashion by getting to Victory Lane at MIS after a late-race, three-wide slide job on Bell and Austin Cindric.

All three wins were “encumbered.” Logano’s car failed post-race inspection for an L1 penalty, a rear suspension violation. Hamlin also suffered an L1 penalty for splitter structure-the splitter was not flat. Wallace’s truck had a vent-hole violation, as NASCAR states that, “vent holes on the bed are for air intake only.”

All three drivers are still listed as the winners of their respective races in the NASCAR record books.

The dictionary defines encumbered as, “restrict or burden (someone or something) in such a way that free action or movement is difficult.” In the NASCAR sense, Logano’s encumbered win does not count towards playoff qualification, and if he should qualify for the playoffs he would not receive the five playoff points for his win. Neither Hamlin’s nor Wallace’s victories being encumbered change much of anything since neither driver is a series regular.

Now back to those first three scenarios. That is how the record books should read.

It’s time to eliminate encumbered victories. All together. Take away the trophy. Take back the winner’s share of the purse money. Declare the runner-up the winner of the race. Change the record books.

This isn’t a new idea to sports, proven by the NCAA’s stripping of victories and Heisman trophies (See Joe Paterno, Reggie Bush, et. al).

Hell, this isn’t even a new idea for motorsports. Just this year at Wisconsin International Raceway, Kyle Busch competed in the Dixieland 250, an ARCA Midwest Tour super-late model event, and took the checkers first. His car failed post-race technical inspection and second-place finisher Casey Johnson was declared the winner.

No trophy for Busch. No check. No encumbered victory.

Aside from those in the MENCS, the penalties for encumbered victories are not severe enough to make race teams afraid of them. Yeah, fines will be levied, and crew chiefs suspended, but those are the same penalties for cars that have violations and don’t win the race.

Let’s call a spade a spade, those three race teams cheated to win a race, so they shouldn’t get the benefits that go along with them, including their names in NASCAR’s record of winners.

No trophy. No check. No encumbered victory.