You just had a feeling that we weren’t done talking about the NASCAR Cup Series Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway after the cloud of controversy that covered the night’s sky as Ryan Blaney scorched his Goodyear Eagle racing tires into the track surface.
As Blaney chiseled his name into the Championship 4, shenanigans were afoot behind him as two Chevrolet teams allegedly aided William Byron in his quest to make it into the Championship 4, and a Toyota team was flagged for the same in relation to Christopher Bell.
On Tuesday evening, NASCAR handed out massive penalties to three teams following the late-race manipulation that the sanctioning body concluded occurred. All three teams were officially deemed to be in violation of Sections 4.4.B&D of the NASCAR Rule Book, which pertains to the NASCAR Member Conduct policy.
The No. 1 Trackhouse Racing team will be without Team Executive Tony Lunders, Crew Chief Phil Surgen, and spotter Brandon McReynolds for this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway. Additionally, Ross Chastain and Trackhouse Racing have been fined $100,000 and the driver and team have been docked 50 championship owner and championship driver points.
The No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team will be without Team Executive Keith Rodden, Crew Chief Justin Alexander, and spotter Brandon Benesch for this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway. Additionally, Austin Dillon and Richard Childress Racing have been fined $100,000 and the driver and team have been docked 50 championship owner and championship driver points.
Chastain, and Dillon were essentially protecting Byron in the closing laps of Sunday’s race at Martinsville as Byron had begun bleeding positions due to damage sustained in a late-race incident. With two fellow Chevrolets running directly behind him over the final 25 or so laps, Byron was able to maintain a sixth-place finish.
Richard Childress Racing, and Trackhouse Racing have indicated that they will appeal the penalties.
The No. 23 23XI Racing team will be without Team Executive Dave Rogers, Crew Chief Bootie Barker, and spotter Freddie Kraft for this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway. Additionally, Bubba Wallace and 23XI Racing have been fined $100,000 and the driver and team have been docked 50 championship owner and championship driver points.
23XI Racing has indicated via a statement on social media that they will also appeal the penalties. The statement from 23XI Racing read, “23XI is aware of the penalty issued by NASCAR stemming from Sunday’s race at Martinsville. We feel strongly that we did not commit any violations during Sunday’s race and we will appeal NASCAR’s ruling.”
A NASCAR spokesperson said any appeals would likely take place on Thursday, but that no appeals had been scheduled quite yet.
NASCAR was able to determine that in-race manipulation had occurred after scouring through vehicle data, radio communication, and video footage.
This is five minutes of radio communications from Austin Dillon’s team talking about the late-race “plan” to help out the No. 24.
FWIW: Brandon Benesch (spotter) is 11 weeks removed from a penalty stemming from his radio comms at Richmond. ?#NASCAR
— Joseph Srigley (@joe_srigley) November 4, 2024
Here is some onboard footage from Chastain’s No. 1 car:
Nothing super egregious on the radio communications for Ross Chastain and the No. 1 team — only one mention of Byron’s points situation.
Only real suspicion is they get implicated by the No. 3 radio when they ask if the No. 1 knows the plan. #NASCAR
— Joseph Srigley (@joe_srigley) November 4, 2024
And finally in-car footage and team audio from Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 car:
Here is the radio chatter between Bubba Wallace and the No. 23 during the final laps of the race.
Coming to three to go, Wallace says “I think I’ve got a tire go down”. Asked after if he needs a fire extinguisher – #45 had a fire earlier. #NASCAR
— Joseph Srigley (@joe_srigley) November 4, 2024
Also on the penalty report were the expected two-race suspension for two members of Kyle Busch’s No. 8 Richard Childress Racing pit crew following a violation of Sections 4.4.D of the NASCAR Cup Series Rule Book due to a detached wheel in Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway.
Josh Sobecki and Michael Russell will not be permitted to compete this weekend at Phoenix, or in the 2025 Clash at Bowman Gray.
Rounding out the post-Martinsville Speedway penalty report were fines for drivers in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Chandler Smith, the driver of the No. 81 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supra in the Xfinity Series, was fined $10,000 for his post-race attempt at a punch on Cole Custer following Saturday’s event at Martinsville.
Ty Majeski, one of the Championship 4 drivers in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, has been fined $12,500 for failure to complete media obligations. Majeski missed Tuesday’s media partner NASCAR Truck Series Championship 4 availabilities.
One Response
Personally, don’t have any problems with what was done during the race to “protect” Byron. I don’t get these penalties even though they don’t mean much this time of the year. If you penalize teams, shouldn’t you penalize also the team benefiting from this manipulation? If this was manipulation, what his the difference with manufacturer’s pit stop in races like Talladega, Daytona and Atlanta? The penalty to Bell is ok. The rule was there and he did do the the heil-melon. Even though, I think, the way he did it was not the same…