Explained: The nine race manipulation penalties from NASCAR Martinsville

NASCAR has issued nine major penalties after the controversial finish in Martinsville that saw several people accused of race manipulation.

Today, we’re going to make sense of the penalties and how they may impact the upcoming NASCAR Cup Series finale in Phoenix this weekend.

NASCAR issues nine penalties after controversial Martinsville

NASCAR’s Cup Series race at Martinsville was rife with controversy and allegations of race manipulation.

Team Penske Ryan Blaney driver won the race without any concerns regarding the legality of his victory. However, other instances of bad behavior marred the event’s closing stages.

In NASCAR, eight drivers enter the penultimate round of the championship, but only four will proceed to the season finale — where the points are effectively reset, and all four drivers have an equal shot of winning the race. The driver that finishes highest in the running order, then, is the driver that takes home the championship.

But allegations of race manipulation swirled, particularly regarding manufacturer Chevrolet. Only one of its drivers, William Byron, had a shot of making it into the Championship 4 at the end of the race; if anyone passed Byron, he would inevitably lose his shot at the Championship 4.

So, as the race wound down, fans were shocked to find two drivers seemingly unable to pass the ailing Byron. Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain — two Chevy drivers themselves, albeit on different teams — spent multiple laps racing side by side just behind Byron’s bumper. What initially looked suspicious took on an even darker bent when radio transmissions emerged after the race that seemed to indicate there was some kind of “plan” in place to keep Byron in a Championship 4-eligible position.

While NASCAR does allow teammates to give each other a hand in a race, the series discourages multi-team manufacturer collusion — and has rules that dictate each team and driver must finish the race in their best possible position. The finish of the race therefore went before NASCAR, where the series would be tasked with determining and announcing penalties.

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Late on Tuesday night, NASCAR announced a slew of major penalties for those involved in the alleged race manipulation at Martinsville.

The crew chief, spotter, and one team executive from three teams — the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing team of Ross Chastain, the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team of Austin Dillon, and the No. 23 23XI Racing team of Bubba Wallace — have been suspended ahead of the finale this weekend in Martinsville.

The full list of those suspended are:

• Phil Surgen (No. 1 crew chief)
• Brandon McReynolds (No. 1 spotter)
• Tony Lunders (Trackhouse Racing team executive)
• Justin Alexander (No. 3 crew chief)
• Brandon Benesch (No. 3 spotter)
• Keith Rodden (Richard Childress Racing team executive)
• Bootie Barker (No. 23 crew chief)
• Freddie Kraft (No. 23 spotter)
• Dave Rogers (23XI Racing team executive)

In addition, each team and driver has been docked 50 points and fined $100,000. That means each organization will have to pay $200,000.

All three teams intend to appeal the penalties.

“We felt like we wanted to ramp this one up, and we did,” Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, said of the penalties, as reported in RACER.

“We did that in a way that we included team leadership in this one. It’s something we feel like 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 and our racing, to make sure that when our fans show up on a given day and watch a race, they’re seeing the best competition possible, and there’s nothing that’s in there manipulating that.

“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 OEMs going forward if we need to. We will get this point across.”

The situation at Martinsville intimately involved manufacturers Chevrolet and Toyota, but there are currently no regulations in the NASCAR rulebook that could levy those manufacturers with penalties.

Sawyer has stated that NASCAR will be looking deeper into the matter during the upcoming off-season, perhaps with the intention of implementing penalties for bad manufacturer behavior.

The three teams facing penalties in the wake of Martinsville are not competing for a driver championship this season.

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