NASCAR clarifies major penalties for Cole Custer’s No. 41 team
NASCAR announced Tuesday afternoon that the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing team and driver Cole Custer would be penalized for their actions on the final lap of Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.
Custer and his No. 41 team were each penalized 50 points. Custer and crew chief Mike Shiplett were each fined $100,000 and Shiplett was indefinitely suspended.
On the final lap of Sunday’s race, Custer slowed on the backstretch after being told by Shiplett that his car had a flat tire.
Custer was passed by several drivers, including teammate Chase Briscoe who made the Round of 8 by two points.
NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller stated Shiplett had no way of knowing that Custer had a flat tire and the data showed Custer slowing after Shiplett radioed to him. However, Miller said the move didn’t help Briscoe as he was in before the move was made.
Miller said the move didn’t appear to be a coordinated effort as there was no egregious communication on Briscoe’s radio, compared to Custer’s radio which had communications that they believed “couldn’t be construed anything else”.
Miller clarified that, while Shiplett was suspended indefinitely, Custer wasn’t suspended because they felt his actions weren’t posing a danger in the same way others’ were when they were suspended – such as in 2015 when Matt Kenseth was suspended after infamously retaliated against Joey Logano and wrecked him at Martinsville.
Fans argued Chase Elliott made a similar move on Kevin Harvick in the September 2021 Bristol Night Race where he said he would help teammate Kyle Larson. However, NASCAR believed that was an instance of a driver “taking matters into their own hands” as Elliott made that comment while on pit road following contact with Harvick.
Stewart-Haas Racing will appeal NASCAR’s penalties. No word on who will serve as a replacement for Shiplett.
After the penalty, Cole Custer dropped two spots and is now 27th in NASCAR Cup Series points:
| 25 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 524 |
| 26 | Harrison Burton | 501 |
| 27 | Cole Custer | 500 |
| 28 | Ty Dillon | 486 |
| 29 | Kurt Busch | 485 |
| 30 | Todd Gilliland | 481 |
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com
The bottom line is drivers help teammates week in and week out, yet it only seems to be a problem during playoff time. Take any track when a driver lets a teammate drop down in front of him, or when a race leader driver takes the slow lane like the inside at Bristol and lets the teammate on the outside take the fast lane, then pulls up in front of him so his teammate wont loose 3-5 spots. Which is 3-5 points. So to me helping a teammate during the playoffs is a non issue.