NASCAR suspended nine people and issued a total of $600,000 in fines to teams and drivers for their role in manipulating the end of last weekend’s Cup race at Martinsville Speedway.
NASCAR cited the teams of Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain for violating the NASCAR Member Code of Conduct.
NASCAR suspended a team executive, crew chief and spotter for each of the three teams for this weekend’s season finale at Phoenix Raceway. Each team and driver was fined $100,000 and penalized 50 points.
“We want to make sure that these penalties are delivered in a way — and they will be — that we’re not going to tolerate this,” said Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, on Tuesday night.
There were no penalties to the manufacturers because the rule book does not address a way to penalize a manufacturer, Sawyer said. He noted that series officials will look into that in the offseason.
Sawyer did say that NASCAR will meet with representatives of Chevrolet, Toyota and Ford on Wednesday.
Also, no drivers were suspended. Sawyer said that officials discussed doing so.
“In this case, we felt like we wanted to focus more on the team leadership, something that we haven’t done in the past,” Sawyer said in response to a question from NBC Sports.
“I promise you, that does not exclude going forward — and 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 is going to compromise the integrity of our sport, we’re going to react.”
Trackhouse Racing, Richard Childress Racing and 23XI Racing all announced immediately that they would appeal the penalties.
Those appeals will be expedited and heard this week.
Suspended from 23XI Racing are team executive Dave Rogers, crew chief Bootie Barker and spotter Freddie Kraft.
Suspended from Richard Childress Racing are team executive Keith Rodden, crew chief Justin Alexander and spotter Brandon Benesch.
Suspended from Trackhouse Racing are team executive Tony Lunders, crew chief Phil Surgen and spotter Brandon McReynolds.
At issue is what happened in the final laps of Sunday’s race as Christopher Bell and William Byron raced for the final spot in this weekend’s Championship 4.
The cars of Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain ran behind Byron in the final laps and were made aware that Byron could not afford to lose any more positions or he would not advance to the Championship 4. All three drivers are with Chevrolet teams. Dillon and Chastain did not pass Byron.
NBC played communication on Dillon’s radio after the race.
“You know the deal?” Dillon asked.
“I’m trying to find them to tell them,” came the response from Benesch. “Justin [Alexander, crew chief], you tell the crew chief and I’ll tell … “
“ … does [Chastain’s] crew chief know the deal?
“He should.”
NBC also played audio from Chastain’s radio that included spotter McReynolds telling Chastain to be “nice and smart” around Byron because Byron was “one (point) to the good.”
NASCAR has penalized the No. 1, No. 3 and No. 23 teams for manipulation near the end of Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series at Martinsville.
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) November 5, 2024
Have a listen to each team's radio. pic.twitter.com/XbroAIKJVM
Sawyer said there were no penalties to Byron and his team because “all the audio that we had and looked at and all the video that we looked at, there was no real evidence (they were involved).”
Sawyer noted that Byron and Bell “were racing as hard as they could race. We didn’t see anything there that would have risen to a level that we felt like we needed to penalize either of those drivers.”
As for Wallace, he was the first car a lap down and ahead of Bell, who also was a lap down.
Wallace was made aware of Bell’s situation in the race for a spot in the Championship 4. Wallace radioed in the final laps that he thought he had a tire going down and slowed significantly on the last lap.
After the race, Wallace told reporters: “I went loose or something broke and was nursing it and then [Bell] tried to slide me. I’m like, ‘brother.’ Just trying to bide our time and not crash and bring out a caution and jumble up the whole field.”
Bell, needing one position to secure a spot in the Championship 4, passed Wallace entering Turn 3 and then slid up to the wall. Bell rode along the wall through Turn 4 and finished 18th.
About 30 minutes after the checkered flag, NASCAR announced it had penalized Bell for a safety violation because running the wall — as Chastain did on the final lap of the 2022 Martinsville playoff race — had since been outlawed. NASCAR dropped Bell to 22nd, last among the cars a lap down. That allowed Byron to secure the final spot in the Championship 4.
Also, NASCAR announced that it has fined Xfinity driver Chandler Smith $10,000 for slapping Cole Custer after Saturday’s race at Martinsville. NASCAR also fined Truck Series driver Ty Majeski $12,500 for failing to complete media obligations.
