NASCAR issues penalties to 3 teams over Martinsville finish

NASCAR penalized three Cup Series teams over the finish to Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

At the end of Sunday’s race, Bubba Wallace reported he had a tire going down with a couple of laps to go. Wallace fell far enough back for Toyota teammate Christopher Bell to pass him and initially get the point he needed to make the Championship 4.

At the same time, Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon raced side-by-side for several laps behind Chevrolet teammate William Byron. The side-by-side racing held up several drivers behind them, allowing Byron to get enough points to initially be tied with Bell for the final spot in the Championship 4.

After NASCAR penalized Bell for riding the wall after passing Wallace, Byron made the Championship 4 by four points.

Radio communication on Dillon’s team radio, asking if “the 1 knew about the deal.” Considering the circumstances and the “eye test” that NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer described Tuesday, the sanctioning body issued penalties.

Chastain, Dillon and Wallace’s teams will each lose three crew members for the season finale at Phoenix Raceway:

Ross Chastain will lose crew chief Phil Surgen, spotter Brandon McReynolds and team executive Tony Lunders at Phoenix. Austin Dillon will lose crew chief Justin Alexander, spotter Brandon Benesch and executive Keith Rodden. Bubba Wallace will lose crew chief Bootie Barker, spotter Freddie Kraft and executive Dave Rogers.

Additionally, NASCAR issued each team and driver a $100,000 fine ($200,000 total per team) and a 50-point penalty.

NASCAR determined each team incurred an infraction, pertaining to rulebook sections 4.4.B&D that covers NASCAR Member Conduct:

Sawyer said the precedent for the loss of points and fines was from when they penalized Cole Custer and Stewart-Haas Racing for manipulating a playoff cutoff race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval in October 2022. Their efforts played a role in getting teammate Chase Briscoe into the Round of 8.

This time, in a similar situation, Sawyer said NASCAR wanted to up the ante.

“We wanted to ramp it up and so we included team leadership, to get our point across. It’s a responsibility of all of us, including team owners and team leaders, to uphold the integrity of the sport, so that fans don’t see anything that manipulates that,” Sawyer said.

Drivers aren’t immune from being suspended in future cases like these.

“I can promise you, going forward this does not exclude drivers. We will meet with drivers and make it clear that when you do anything to compromise the integrity of the sport, we will react,” Sawyer said.

Given the totality of the manufacturers allegedly working out these deals for their teams to carry out, a NASCAR rep said that officials will meet Wednesday with OEMs Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota about this.

“At the moment, there’s no mechanism in the rulebook to penalize the OEMs so we will look at that in the off-season,” Elton Sawyer said.

Regarding a penalty for Byron or further penalties for Bell, Sawyer emphasized that they didn’t see a need for it.

23XI Racing and Richard Childress Racing, in statements posted to social media Tuesday, plan to appeal the penalties. NASCAR will expedite those appeals for the panel to hear them this week.