Drama continued to surround NASCAR leading up to its season finale as the governing body imposed $600,000 in fines and suspended nine team members from three different teams on Tuesday for alleged race manipulation at Martinsville Speedway.
The penalties followed a controversial final battle on Sunday at the Virginia track, where Christopher Bell initially secured a spot in the championship final four. However, Bell’s move to hit the wall and use it for extra speed violated a safety rule, which led to his disqualification.
As a result, William Byron took the final spot in this week’s winner-takes-all finale at Phoenix Raceway.
NASCAR made it clear when disqualifying Bell that they would investigate the actions of other drivers involved in the sequence where Bell and Byron fought for the last place in the championship four.
Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, emphasized that drivers Ross Chastain, Austin Dillon, and Bubba Wallace were fortunate not to face suspension.
“In this case we felt we wanted to focus more on the team leadership, something that we haven’t done in the past,” Sawyer said. “But I promise you that does not exclude going forward.
We have meetings coming up this week with our drivers and we will get that point across to them and be very clear that when you do anything that’s going to compromise the integrity of our sport, we’re going to react.”
Drivers have been warned since a 2013 scandal that they must always give 100% and cannot participate in any race manipulation. This rule came about after the final regular-season race of that year when Clint Bowyer intentionally spun to create a chain of events that allowed his teammate Martin Truex Jr. to claim the final playoff spot.
Truex was disqualified from the playoffs, and the scandal led to the shutdown of Michael Waltrip Racing. As a result, Jeff Gordon was added to the playoffs as an extra driver because he had been denied the chance to race for that playoff spot.
After a weekend of emergency meetings between NASCAR and the teams at the race where the playoffs started, NASCAR established the 100% rule.
However, the manipulation rule is often ignored at Daytona and Talladega, where drivers from the same manufacturers work together in the draft and during pit stops. So far, no penalties have been given for these situations.
In the most recent case, NASCAR concluded that Toyota driver Bubba Wallace pretended to have a flat tire to allow Bell the chance to move out of the way and hit the wall. The wall-riding move was banned after Chastain used it in 2022 to secure the final playoff spot.
In Byron’s case, NASCAR determined that Chastain and Dillon interfered to help fellow Chevrolet driver Byron maintain his position on the track, preventing him from losing a spot that would have cost him a place in the championship.
Sawyer explained that NASCAR considered taking action against the manufacturers, Chevrolet and Toyota, but there is no rule in the book that allows them to punish the manufacturers. NASCAR also planned to meet with the leaders of Ford, Chevy, and Toyota to discuss the situation.
Since the penalties were announced during the week of the season finale, the teams have until Wednesday afternoon to request an expedited appeal. The appeals will likely be heard on Thursday.
Trackhouse Racing, which fields Chastain’s Chevy, said it would appeal, as did 23XI Racing for Wallace’s Toyota.
“We feel strongly that we did not commit any violations during Sunday’s race,” 23XI said in a statement. The team is currently involved in a lawsuit against NASCAR over the charter system and has Tyler Reddick racing on Sunday for the Cup Series title.
