Following the manufacturer drama at Martinsville Speedway NASCAR threatened to remove drivers from the Daytona 500 if race manipulation took place in the championship race
In the final playoff elimination race of the 2024 NASCAR season at Martinsville Speedway, we saw drama between NASCAR manufacturers.
William Byron (Chevrolet) and Christopher Bell (Toyota) were in a battle for the final of four spots for the championship finale. They were only separated by a point.
In the closing laps, Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain, two Team Chevy drivers lined up side by side behind another Chevy driver, William Byron who was on worn tires. Dillon and Chastain were clearly faster but they both elected not to pass Byron.
The No 3 team stated over the radio, “If we pass him, he’ll be out.”
They later added, “Does the No. 1 crew chief know the deal?” They confirmed, “Yeah, he should.”
At the same time, Toyota Racing was working behind the scenes to help Christopher Bell. With just a few laps to go, Bubba Wallace drastically slowed.
Wallace stated over the radio, “I think I got a tire going down.”
On the final lap, Bell passed Wallace. Bell would have advanced into the championship race had NASCAR not stepped in with the rulebook.
Bell was docked for riding the wall on the final lap. He was removed from the championship finale, Byron was back in.
After the race, NASCAR tore down the No. 23 car of Bubba Wallace. They were likely searching for a mechanical failure that would have caused him to drastically slow.
Mid-week, NASCAR issued steep penalties to Ross Chastain, Austin Dillon and Bubba Wallace. Each team was fined $100,000.
NASCAR penalizes Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, Austin Dillon
Joey Logano comments on the penalties for race manipulation
“I think NASCAR did the right thing. By doing something. They had to,” Joey Logano stated via the Happy Hour Podcast.
“If you let that go it will continue to grow. NASCAR’s put in a spot where they have to do something.”
“The No. 20, he rode the wall. Can’t do that, that’s a black and white rule. Easy call.”
“The others, easy call because you heard them talking on the radio. If there wasn’t that communication on the radio, how do you make that call?”
“Did they slow down? It was pretty obvious, to the naked eye what was going on. If they didn’t say it on the radio, are they going to make that call though? I don’t know.”
“But we have to do something otherwise we’re going to look like F1. That’s not what we are.”
Manufacturer games at Phoenix Raceway
A week later, in the championship race weekend at Phoenix Raceway there was some drama in practice…
Logano stated, “We unloaded for practice. The No. 1 is racing the dog crap out of the No. 12, in practice. The No. 77 unloads, backs up to me, in practice. The week after you just got dinged for this.”
“They’re not backing off on it. They’re just not going to talk about it.”
NASCAR threatened removing Daytona 500 eligibility
Logano confirmed, “They did threaten us before the race. That if anyone manipulates the race somehow, you’re not racing in the Daytona 500 next year. Is that a threat? Is that real? We’ll know if something happened. I didn’t see anything happen.”
“This playoff system is a bad part of it. Whoever signs your paycheck is who you answer to.”
“If Chevy or Ford or Toyota are stroking these big checks and they say, ‘Hey, it’s very important to have our car in the Championship 4 and we fund a lot of your stuff. You better do the right thing.’ What are you going to do?”
“You’re backed up against the wall. And that backs NASCAR up against the wall. I don’t know how to fix it.”
In 2025, NASCAR will have a new rule allowing them to fine manufacturers
Going forward, NASCAR will be adding a rule allowing them to fine manufacturers for situations similar to this.
“We do have rules in the rule book where we can address it and we did,” NASCAR Chief Operating Officer Steve O’Donnell via Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
“We had a call with our OEMs where we were very clear about our intentions going forward. Do we have a rule right now where we could do something? We don’t.”
“Will we have a rule next year? 1,000%. And they’re aware if anything happens this weekend, which it won’t, we will react.”
“I would argue before what we saw one of the best races we’ve seen in the playoffs, and it’s unbelievable that we’re sitting here talking about this topic,” O’Donnell in his State of the Sport address.
“I’ll probably get in trouble for saying this, but I’ll say it anyway. I’ve been around a long time. But Bill France used to say being pissed off is not a plan.
“What I saw in Martinsville pissed me off, and it pissed everyone off at NASCAR. Because we all know better, and we know what happened.”
“We know what happened, and going forward, we’ll have to penalize you as well. But what do our words mean? We’re not going to let people — drivers, teams, OEMs, anyone — challenge the integrity of the sport.”
Christopher Bell feels ‘cheated’ after ‘fixed’ NASCAR playoff race
