NASCAR has issued nine major sanctions after the controversial finish at Martinsville in which several people were accused of race manipulation.

Today we will understand the sanctions and how they may affect the upcoming NASCAR Cup Final in Phoenix this weekend.

NASCAR issues nine penalties after controversial Martinsville

The NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville was plagued with controversy and accusations of race rigging.

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

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

But accusations of race manipulation emerged, particularly in relation to manufacturer Chevrolet. Only one of its drivers, William Byron, had a chance of entering the Championship 4 at the end of the race; If someone passed Byron, they would inevitably lose their chance to win the Championship 4.

Then, as the race wound down, fans were shocked to find two drivers seemingly unable to overtake the ailing Byron. Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain, two Chevy drivers, albeit on different teams, spent several laps racing side by side just behind Byron’s bumper. What initially seemed suspicious took on an even darker tone when radio broadcasts emerged after the race that seemed to indicate there was some kind of “plan” to keep Byron in an eligible position for the Championship 4.

While NASCAR allows teammates to lend a hand to each other in a race, the series discourages collusion between multiple team manufacturers and has rules that dictate each team and driver. has to finish the race in the best possible position. Therefore, the end of the race came before NASCAR, where the series would be tasked with determining and announcing penalties.

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Late Tuesday night, NASCAR announced a series of significant penalties for those involved in the alleged race rigging at Martinsville.

The crew chief, observer and a team executive for three teams: Ross Chastain’s No. 1 Trackhouse Racing team, Austin Dillon’s No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team and Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 23XI Racing team, have been suspended ahead of this weekend’s final in Martinsville.

The complete list of suspended people is:

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

In addition, each team and driver have been deducted 50 points and a fine of $100,000. That means each organization will have to pay $200,000.

The three teams intend to appeal the sanctions.

“We felt like we wanted to escalate this, and we did,” Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, said of the sanctions, as reported in CORRIDOR.

“We did it in such a way that we included team leadership in it. It’s something that we feel we want to make clear is a responsibility of all of us (the team owners, the team leaders, as well as ourselves here at NASCAR) to uphold the integrity of our sport and our racing, to do I’m sure that when our fans show up on any given day and watch a race, they’re watching the best possible competition and there’s nothing there manipulating that.

“We feel this is the right path at this time. We will make sure that if necessary we will step it up again. We will include drivers. We will include OEM in the future if necessary. “We will get this point across.”

The situation at Martinsville closely involved manufacturers Chevrolet and Toyota, but there are currently no regulations in the NASCAR rulebook that could impose sanctions on those manufacturers.

Sawyer has stated that NASCAR will investigate the matter further during the upcoming offseason, perhaps with the intention of implementing sanctions for poor behavior by manufacturers.

The three teams facing sanctions after what happened at Martinsville will not compete for a drivers’ championship this season.

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