I don't know what other teams do when it comes to the cover bolts. We pull into the staging lanes with the cover bolts installed, but loose. That way we can get in there a little quicker to make a change. There's a crew member who's responsibility is to tighten those cover nuts when we are 2 - 3 pairs away from the water box. So in our case, someone would've had to forgotten to tighten them or maybe dropped some in the belly pan upon reinstalling the cover after a change on the clutch.
Yeah that's a tough one. I would be crushed. The more I think about it, I understand NHRA's position on the ruling. It's unfortunate this violation happened during an elimination round.