First of all, let’s get the Martinsville results out of the way. Ryan Blaney drove his rear off and won the race to complete his effort to try for his second title. That makes it Blaney, Joey Logano (for title number three), Tyler Reddick and William Byron as the Championship Four. That is quite the foursome, but it also begs the question, is this the right foursome to compete for the title?
What about Kyle Larson with 6 wins and led the most laps this season? Denny Hamlin led the 3rd most laps this season.
Should the 4th driver have been William Byron or Christopher Bell?
Oh right, that leads me to another point.
Byron and Bell both put themselves in a really bad spot. Byron just wasn’t good enough to go through on his own and the next thing you know, Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain were battling side by side for the right to get past Byron and potentially knock him out of a playoff berth.
Or were they?
Watching live, I was thinking it LOOKED like they were racing Byron hard, and it LOOKED like Byron was making his car as wide as he would around the tricky oval.
But wait, hold my beer.
Also in that mix was Bell trying like hell to stay ahead of Byron. He needed to pass Bubba Wallace to help with that and as Bubba got loose (at least it LOOKED like he did), Byron drove hard around him, hit the wall and accelerated off the corner banging into the corner wall for a couple hundred feet before he exited the turn and got off the wall.
NASCAR disagreed with both of those scenarios.
NASCAR decided that Team Chevy was doing its best to not appear like they were blocking for Byron, but they were.
And NASCAR decided that Bubba Wallace was pulling a Clint Bowyer and letting Bell past, as well as that Bell was riding the wall, a la Ross Chastain, which is an illegal move.
After reviewing race video and listening to the team scanners, NASCAR then lowered the hammer on the teams and drivers with point losses, fines and suspensions. Guilty as charged on all counts. And NASCAR said they may not be done issuing penalties as well as tweaking the rules to stop race manipulation.
Throw all of that into the blender with the Team 23XI – FRM lawsuit going on with NASCAR over the charter deal and monopoly and NASCAR is a hot mess heading into Championship Weekend.
First of all, race manipulation is real and probably happens every race weekend. Kind of like offensive holding in the NFL. If they called that on every down, the game would take 6 hours. NASCAR can’t afford to call manipulation every race or fans would leave in droves, even more than they are.
Secondly, teams need to remember that NASCAR can HEAR YOU. What sounds like reminders to drivers about where opposing drivers on the bubble stand on the track when they themselves are obviously NOT in contention is sheer stupidity. Make up a code word like “Omaha” for sensitive discussions. Do we need Peyton Manning brought in to help with this?
I haven’t seen any report regarding Bubba’s claim he broke something or had a tire go down. You would think that NASCAR should be able to impound that car and determine if he told the truth.
Was Bell riding the wall? Tough call. It’s not like he accelerated the entire way around a la Chastain. It is clear he was out of the gas when he hit the wall but did accelerate as he straightened his car out and tagged the wall again as he accelerated off. But it is the playoffs, and this car can handle damage, so accelerating off the wall was the sensible thing to do when you are racing for a chance at a title.
And you can’t forget that Reddick is racing for one of the teams suing NASCAR. Can you imagine if Reddick wins while his bosses are suing NASCAR? That would be bonkers – and probably what NASCAR deserves – but doesn’t need.
Heading into Phoenix, NASCAR can’t avoid talking about this race manipulation issue nor how they made the call on wall riding. There is a title on the line, but these messes are going to linger into the off season and continue to plague NASCAR right up through and probably beyond the awards ceremonies in December.
Perhaps Tyler Reddick will be up there accepting his trophy as his bosses burn down the NASCAR monopoly.
Delicious.
(Photo by David Jensen/Getty Images/NASCAR Media)
