NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer shared that he and his team at NASCAR will be looking in to race manipulation by Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, and Austin Dillon during the final laps of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway.
Christopher Bell passes Bubba Wallace on the final lap of the NASCAR Cup Series Race at Martinsville in November 2024.
In the closing laps of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville, William Byron’s older tires were clearly fading and he fell into the clutches of both Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain. The two Chevy drivers formed a moving wall behind Byron to ensure that he would maintain a sixth place finish and stay at least one point ahead of Christopher Bell in the playoffs.
Radio communication for Austin Dillon and Chastain’s teams clearly indicate that both Dillon and Chastain were given instructions to block for Byron and manipulate the finishing order.
Radio comms between Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon’s crews.@AlwaysRaceDay pic.twitter.com/MLLFr6mBmi
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthew_CFB) November 3, 2024
While Chevy clearly instructed Dillon and Chastain to block for Byron, Toyota instructed Bubba Wallace to completely tank his last lap in order for Bell to pass him and gain the one extra point he needed to tie Byron in the points. If the two were tied, Bell had the tie breaker with his second place finish at Las Vegas in October.
Bell was able to pass Wallace, but as he was doing so he drifted up the track and got too high and lost control and slammed hard into the wall. After making contact with the wall, he stayed in the gas similar to Ross Chastain’s Hail Melon move and was able to stay ahead of Wallace.
IS BELL IN OR OUT?!!
What do y’all think?
— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) November 3, 2024
NASCAR penalized Bell for a “safety violation” and placed him in 22nd position, the last car one lap down. That granted William Byron the fourth and final position in the playoffs for the Championship race at Phoenix.
PENALTY: NASCAR deems the No. 20 car incurred a safety violation at @MartinsvilleSwy. He is placed in 22nd position, the last car one lap down.
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) November 3, 2024
Following the race, Sawyer was asked about the penalty to Bell as well as whether it would investigate race manipulation by Chevy and Bubba Wallace.
Sawyer specifically claimed that the race manipulation had no bearing on the penalty to Bell. He said, “If you look at the other situations that were going, The 23 and the cars behind the 24, really no bearing at this time. We’ll look at those at a later time. But when you really just dissect what happened, look at the situation with the 20 getting up against the face and then riding the fence, which we clearly stated in our statement after Ross did that that that would not be accepted.”
NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer says they the No. 23 and the Chevy’s behind the No. 24 really have no bearing on the decision made tonight.
He says they will look into those specific things at a later date.
The penalty assessed tonight was strictly a safety violation for wall riding.… pic.twitter.com/Z7IGxrw1VV
— Noah Lewis (@Noah_Lewis1) November 4, 2024
In regards to race manipulation, back in 2022, NASCAR penalized Cole Custer and Stewart-Haas Racing for race manipulation at the Roval during the Round of 8 and specifically cited Section 5.5 of its Rule Book, which stated at the time:
A: NASCAR requires its Competitor(s) to race at 100 percent of their ability with the goal of achieving their best possible finishing position in the Event.
B: Any Competitor(s) who takes action with the intent to Artificially Alter the finish positions of the Event or encourages, persuades or induces others to Artificially Alter the finish positions of the Event shall be subject to a penalty from NASCAR, as specified in Section 10 Violations and Disciplinary Action.
C: “Artificially Alter” shall be defined as the actions by any Competitor(s) that show or suggest that the Competitor(s) did not race at 100 percent of their ability for the purpose of changing finishing positions in the Event, in NASCAR’s sole discretion.
What do you make of Sawyer’s comments?