NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer provided an explanation behind NASCAR’s penalties given to Ross Chastain, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace, and their teams following their actions at Martinsville.

Elton Sawyer via Noah Lewis on X

In a post on NASCAR.com, the organization stated, “After an investigation of the on-track data and team scanners from the final laps of Sunday’s Round of 8 elimination race, NASCAR determined the actions of those involved violated sections 4.4.B&D: NASCAR Member Conduct of the Rule Book, which include race manipulation and actions detrimental to stock car racing.”

It then shared that Chastain, Dillon, and Wallace “were each hit with a loss of 50 driver points and a $100,000 fine. In addition, NASCAR also fined the owners of each team $100,000 and deducted 50 owner points each.”

William Byron, Ross Chastain, Austin Dillon, and Bubba Wallace via The Daily Downforce on X

NASCAR continued, “Crew chiefs Phil Surgen, Justin Alexander and Bootie Barker, along with their respective spotters Brandon McReynolds, Brandon Benesch and Freddie Kraft, were all suspended for the 2024 season finale at Phoenix Raceway.”

“Additionally, team executives Tony Lunders, Keith Rodden and Dave Rogers were also suspended for the 2024 finale at Phoenix,” it stated.

Christopher Bell passes Bubba Wallace on the final lap of the NASCAR Cup Series Race at Martinsville in November 2024.

Sawyer explained the penalties saying, “We took and looked at the most recent penalty that we had written for an infraction very similar, which was the 41 car a couple of years ago at the Roval. We felt like we wanted to ramp this one up and we did that in a way that we included team leadership in this one. Something that we feel like that we want to get our point across that it’s a responsibility of all of us, the team owners, the team leadership, as well as ourselves here at NASCAR to uphold the integrity of our sport, our racing to make sure that when our fans show up on a given day and watch a race that they’re seeing the best competition possible and there’s nothing in there that’s manipulating that.”

He continued, “So we do feel like this is the right path at this time. We will make sure going forward if we need to we will ramp it up again. We will include drivers. We will include OEs going forward if we need to. We will get this point across.”

“We discussed all the above,” Sawyer stated. “The group that we landed on as well as the drivers, we felt like that in this case we wanted to focus more on the team leadership something that we haven’t done in the past. But 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’s going to compromise the integrity of our sport we are going to react. And we’ll look at all of our racing as we normally do in the offseason. If there’s any tweaks or changes that need to be made we will make them as well,” he concluded.

William Byron, Ross Chastain, and Austin Dillon via The Daily Downforce on X

What do you make of Sawyer’s explanation?

NEXT: Jeff Gordon Denies Chevy Manipulated The Finish At Martinsville