Plastic cut out near the right front tire?

For some reason unbeknownst to me, the previous owner cut out a portion of the plastic covering the undercarriage near the right front tire. It wouldn't seem too odd to me that they did it, but another Aveo we looked at had the same thing done to it. Both cars had a strange sound when driving as the plastic was flapping in the wind, which we tied up with a zip tie on mine.

Is there some reason why these pieces were removed? The only thing we could come up with was there was some part that needed fixed. And, with the fact that two cars had the same thing done to them, we assume it may be a common issue. Mines a 2005 automatic.

Any ideas?

Passenger side or driver side?

is it in the wheel well? (potentially removed to fit a cai?)before i added a bend in my cai, it forced the panel in the wheelwell towards the wheel.caused rubbing.

right front so passenger.

That is the side where you get access to the intake and all the belts and anything connected to the belts. I am not 100% sure, so someone correct me if im wrong