Well if you have been anywhere near NASCAR’s social media today, you might have seen some very colorful language on there with fans expressing their opinions on how NASCAR handled the situation that unfolded in the closing laps of the cutoff race to enter the Final 4. Today we will be breaking down, what all happened during those final laps, who’s at fault, who should be getting penalized, and if i think NASCAR made the right call. This will also include multiple videos and interviews from the hard working reporters at the track all weekend. Their profiles will be attached to all the videos in this post.
*BSN doesn’t own rights to the broadcast videos shown in this post, *All credits to NBC for the broadcast feeds*
Martinsville Recap:
Before we dip into the controversy that fans are saying NASCAR created due to this format, we need to talk about who will be fighting for a championship this year, now another story will be released on their season stats and all that fun stuff, but your Final 4 this year are, Logano, Reddick, Blaney and Byron. Blaney locked himself in following a win at the half mile paper clip.
Blaney only led 32 laps but that was more then enough to secure the win and his ticket to Phoenix, with a chance to defend his title, and make it two straight championships. Blaney is looking to be the first driver since Jimmie Johnson in 2009 and 2010 to win consecutive championships.
Brad Keselowski led the most laps yesterday with 170 but it wasn’t enough to close out the victory for the Driver-Owner of RFK racing. Brad finished ninth, but that didn’t end his night there. He also felt the fans frustrations and took to X to share his displeasure on the situation which you can find below from the man himself
Martinsville Controversy
First of to make this easy, we will be breaking this down into 3 different sections, the safety violation that NASCAR said Christopher Bell committed and the possible race manipulation, and also the possible race manipulation by Chevrolet with multiple videos to help explain what exactly happened yesterday.
Christopher Bell’s Penalty
2 laps to go:
Christopher Bell at this point was -1 below the cutline to make the Final 4 to race for a championship, Byron held the final spot but if Bell would be able to gain one more final position, he’d be tied with William Byron and per NASCAR rules, Bell would have won the tie-breaker, locking him into the Final 4. It was mentioned multiple times on the broadcast, which teams have access to on the pit box. Bell at this point had to cover off a fast charging Noah Gragson, who was looking to pass him for 19th, which would have knocked Bell to under 2 points below the cutline.
1 lap to go:
Bell crosses the line and takes the white flag, but he is neck and neck with Noah Gragson still. But then, Toyota teammate, Bubba Wallace had a issue entering turns 1 and 2, he was able to keep it off the racing line but that was what Christopher Bell needed to make the tie breaker, to make the Final 4. Then entering Turns 3 and 4, Bell drove it into the wall and rode the wall to keep his 18th position (Bell was forced slightly into the wall by Bubba Wallace, but he stayed on the gas despite being in the wall). That move by Bubba and Bell locked the 20 into the Final 4
Post-Race:
NASCAR announces almost immediately that the finish is under review, William Byron gets out of the car disappointed, following a 6th place finish, Byron believed at the time that he wouldn’t be racing for a championship.
At this point in the broadcast, it is shown that Bubba Wallace had a ‘problem’ all the way from fifth place. When Bubba was asked about it, he said he had a problem and didn’t wanna get in the field’s away. It was a relatively quick interview and Bubba walked away without any more questions.
The broadcast then provides radio transmission from the 23 team and Bubba Wallace in the closing laps which i will put down below.
Now NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer said that will look at Bubba’s actions at a later date and that they are more focused on Christopher Bell incident.
Bubba Wallace’s car was also tore down at the end of the race, so if it is found that nothing broke like he said, then he could potentially be facing penalties.
Then NASCAR made the announcement, it was a safety violation for Christopher Bell. Byron is in, Bell is out. You can find Byron’s raw reaction to the news down below.
After the race, Elton Sawyer said the focus for race control was if Bell rode the wall or not. Sawyer said they we’re not weighing the 23/1/3 actions, but as i mentioned earlier, they will be looked at, at a later day.
In my opinion, NASCAR made the right call on this one, yes Bell did get forced into the wall, but no one asked him to keep the pedal to the floorboard, which looked very similar to Ross Chastain’s Hail Melon move last season, which has been banned in NASCAR. NASCAR made the correct call by removing Bell from the Final 4, but as i mentioned before. He’s not the only one in this one, Bubba Wallace also had a part in this, where if he didn’t have a ‘tire’ go down, questions emerge on if Bell would’ve even made it into the Final 4 since Bell probably wouldn’t of been able to make the pass on another driver.
William Byron shared his thoughts on the Christopher Bell move.
I hope NASCAR puts their foot down and doesn’t allow this to happen, because if it does come out that Bubba didn’t have a tire go down, but instead conceded the positions, that’s a violation of NASCAR’s 100% rule.
NASCAR’s 100% rule requires competitors to run at their best ability to achieve the best possible finish. The rule aims to prevent competitors from artificially altering the outcome of a race, such as by slowing down to allow a teammate to gain positions.
NASCAR can penalize competitors who are found to have violated the 100% rule. For example, in 2022, NASCAR penalized Cole Custer for intentionally slowing down on the final lap of a race to help his teammate gain positions.
Chevrolet Controversy:
Alright, so this one might be a little harder to prove but their is radio communications that further help the fans points in possible race manipulation.
Twitter/X @/Basso488 broke down all of the notable radio communications between the 3 crew and Austin Dillon. You can watch the full video down below but i will be breaking down the most essential radio communications to see if any possible manipulation happened from Chevy.
- 24 laps to go – The 3 crew comes over the radio and notifies Dillon that the 24 is only 2 points to the good, the crew then tells Dillon, that if he passes the 24, he will be out of playoff contention. Dillon asks who he is racing and the crew says he can not give up spots.
- The 3 spotter and crew chief communicate to eachother that they are looking for the 24 crew chief to let them know what’s happening. Then the crew asks the spotter, if the 1 guys know the plan. Crew chief says “yeah, he should”
- The 1 finally gets next to Austin Dillon and the police escort begins. No one is able to pass the 1 and the 3, due to the 2 car block they have on track currently.
- The rest of the radio comms is just spotter communication and guiding the 3 through the rest of the race.
- Post Race- Spotter tells AD, great job. Crew Chief says he is proud of driver and team and it’s a hell of a run. No mention of the 24.
Now blocking the track isn’t essentially illegal, but working with each other, the way the 1 and the 3 did, could potentially be frowned upon on, especially the fact that Chastain and Dillon never tried to pass each other or William Byron. It could be a little hard to prove that Chastain and Dillon didn’t give 100% but if it does come out that they did, expect the penalties to come to them and not William Byron. But Cole Custer essentially did the same move by blocking Dillon and Erik Jones back in 2022. Could we see NASCAR potentially issue out the same penalty but this time to Chastain and Dillon?
Final Thoughts:
Ever since the introduction of this new playoff format, it always felt like NASCAR was trying to force something to happen, a controversy, a fight, drivers wrecking each other to get into the next round but this time, the controversy is in NASCAR’s lap. We are at a point where even drivers want this format to be changed, trust me i love those Game 7 moments just as much as you do, but trying to force something in racing, just never works out in the long run.
That’s exactly what we are seeing here, fans are unhappy and drivers are unhappy. Once both parties are unhappy, there has to be some change that happens. There should be no reason that drivers are saying something broke in the car just to help teammates make the next round. It’s just taking away everything we once enjoyed about racing, the unpredictability of it all. Not knowing what will happen, but with this new format. It seems like every cut off race, we are just expecting a controversy to boil over.
NASCAR needs to make changes to this playoff format, fans will be forced to watch a championship with drivers that they feel don’t deserve to be there, just because they we’re able to advance to the next round due to another drivers car being underweight, or like we saw yesterday, possible race manipulation.
NASCAR will confirm at a later date if both instances we’re indeed race manipulation, but at the end of the day. The damage is done, drivers who deserve to be there, are cut short. Fans are displeased with the result, and NASCAR needs to notice this and change it. I don’t see many fans being to keen on keeping this format any longer, and if NASCAR does, i wouldn’t be surprised to see a dip in viewership.
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