On Sunday at the Martinsville Speedway, NASCAR’s senior officials found themselves addressing controversial allegations of race manipulation. Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s Chief Operating Officer has since spoken out on the penalties that were imposed after the race.
The crux of the issue centered around a number of contentious moves between teams and drivers, allegedly attempting to alter the Championship 4 line-up. Christopher Bell and Bubba Wallace, both Toyota drivers, appeared to be involved in a coordinated move. Wallace, driving for 23XI Racing, slowed down to enable Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing to secure a crucial pass, elevating Bell into the Championship 4 at Phoenix. However, Bell later lost his spot in the coveted Championship 4 with a penalty due to wall-riding on the last lap.
Parallel to this, the Chevrolet teams showed off similar tactics. Ross Chastain of Trackhouse Racing and Austin Dillon of Richard Childress Racing worked in unison to obstruct other competitors, affording William Byron added protection. Radio communication further evidenced these strategies with quotes like Brandon McReynolds stating, “24 is one to the good, one point to the good,” alluding to the points situation, and Brandon Benesch asking, “Does the 1 team know the deal?” with Justin Alexander confirming, “Yeah, he should.”
In response to these manipulations, NASCAR imposed significant penalties. Chastain, Dillon, and Wallace each received a deduction of 50 driver points and were fined $100,000. Team owners shared similar penalties, impacting their standing in the championships. Crew chiefs and spotters faced suspensions for the upcoming race in Phoenix.
The penalties drew a strong response from O’Donnell. He explained to the media:
“To what just happened at Martinsville, I would argue before what we saw, one of the best races again that I’ve seen in the playoffs.
“And it’s unbelievable again that we’re sitting here talking about this topic. I’ll probably get in trouble for saying this, but I’ll say it anyway. I’ve been around a long time, and Bill France used to say being p**sed off was not a plan. What I saw at Martinsville p**sed me off. And it p**sed everyone off at NASCAR because we all know better, and we know what happened.
“So, we do have rules in the rulebook where we can address it, and we did. We had a call with our OEMs where we were very clear in what our intentions are going forward. Do we have a rule right now where we can do something? We don’t. Will we have a rule next season? 1,000%, and they’re aware of that and they’re aware of if anything happens this weekend, which it won’t, but we will react.
“We have a meeting with our drivers on Saturday. The reason we chose not to penalize the drivers… we made a decision that the drivers are holding the wheel. That the drivers were told essentially what to do. We gave them the benefit of the doubt. Saturday’s message from [senior vice president of competition] Elton [Sawyer] to the drivers will be that that’s your warning.
“We know what happened and going forward we’ll have to penalize you as well. What do our words mean? We’re not going to let people, drivers, teams, OEMs challenge the integrity of the sport.”
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