AVONDALE, Ariz. — NASCAR issued more than half of a million dollars in fines and suspended nine people for race manipulation after last weekend's race at Martinsville Speedway. The purpose of these penalties was to deliver a direct message.
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Don't mess with the integrity of the sport.
"I've been around a long time, but Bill France used to say 'Being pissed off is not a plan,'" Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR's Chief Operating Officer, said Friday at Phoenix Raceway.
"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."
Three teams received penalties for race manipulation after the Round of 8 elimination race.
The No. 23 team of 23XI Racing received these penalties after Bubba Wallace slowed suddenly and said he had an issue with his car. This allowed Christopher Bell to make a pass for position and initially reach the Championship 4 on points.
The No. 1 team of Trackhouse Racing and the No. 3 team of Richard Childress Racing both received these penalties after Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain spent numerous laps running side-by-side and preventing anyone from passing William Byron.
23XI Racing chose not to appeal the penalties. Trackhouse Racing appealed and lost. No decision had been made about Richard Childress Racing's appeal as of Friday afternoon.
Teams and OEMs working together during a race is nothing new. This happens all the time at superspeedways as the drivers for each OEM work together. They also try to avoid helping drivers from the other OEMs.
An example of this was the summer race at Daytona as a Chevrolet driver, Parker Retzlaff, pushed a Ford driver, Harrison Burton. Retzlaff's goal was to get Burton clear and then challenge for the win. However, his push actually sent Burton to the win and took it away from fellow Chevrolet driver Kyle Busch.
NASCAR views these superspeedway races differently than it viewed the finish at Martinsville.
"I think we all are smart enough to see what may happen from an OEM at Talladega with teams drafting together, versus what occurred in Martinsville," O'Donnell said.
"Are there some things we need to look at in terms of how things are communicated? What can be communicated between team alliances or OEMs in general? Absolutely. We will continue to address those."
The penalties were not the end of the story. NASCAR also met with the OEMs ahead of the championship weekend to make it clear that the sanctioning body will react to any similar situations in the future. NASCAR will meet with its drivers on Saturday to further discuss the race manipulation.
The NASCAR Rule Book does not currently include any way to penalize the OEMs for race manipulation. That will change over the offseason as NASCAR will "1,000%" put a rule in place, something the sanctioning body told the OEMs during last week's call.
"We're not going to let people, drivers, teams, anyone, OEMs, challenge the integrity of the sport," O'Donnell said.
