Yahoo Autos NASCAR Hits 3 Teams with $200,000 Fines for Martinsville Race Manipulation
NASCAR has issued a series of penalties to three Cup Series teams that it says violated rules related to "race manipulation and actions detrimental to stock car racing." Individual entries from 23XI Racing, Richard Childress Racing, and Trackhouse Racing have all been penalized 50 points, fined $200,000 eachacross separate owner and driver penalties, and handed major one-race personnel suspensions.
The penalties are related to two separate incidents, both seemingly designed to get a team's OEM partner into the Championship Four in the closing laps of Sunday's Martinsville race. In one, a fading William Byron was not passed by the faster fellow Chevrolets of RCR's Austin Dillon and Trackhouse's Ross Chastian.
In another, 23XI's Bubba Wallace slowed suddenly on the final lap and opened the door for his lapped car to be passed by fellow Toyota Christopher Bell. Initially, Bell advanced off that final pass. NASCAR then decided after the race to penalize Bell for hitting the wall after his pass, violating a relatively new rule against wall riding that was implemented after Ross Chastain's legendary move in this race in 2022.
Byron was promoted to the Championship Four, where he will face off with Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, and Joey Logano for a shot at a championship.
Radio chatter aired on NBC showed the two Chevrolet drivers discussing "the deal" with their spotters before running side-by-side immediately behind Byron for the remainder of the race, blocking any chance of Ford's Brad Keselowski from passing the playoff-contending Chevrolet. Wallace's radio chatter was more subtle, mentioning a possible flat tire before the Toyota driver suddenly slows. The equal penalties suggest that NASCAR did not consider the difference in these recorded conversations to be relevant to what happened.
While the infractions in Sunday's race were particularly impactful, they were not particularly new. The series recently issued similar penalties when Cole Custer slowed on the final lap of a cutoff race at Charlotte in 2022. Most significantly, Michael Waltrip Racing received heavy penalties for intentionally bringing out a caution during the final race before the 2013 playoffs. That incident led NASCAR to change the entire playoff field mid-week, expanding to 13 cars as a one-season exception.
Tuesday's announcement, which was unusually made late in the evening on the day of a presidential election, leaves time for expedited appeals before Sunday's pivotal championship race. All three teams have announced plans to appeal the ruling.
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