NASCAR officials had their work cut out for them following the finish of Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
As Ryan Blaney scored the victory and punched his ticket to the Championship 4, all eyes were on William Byron and Christopher Bell.
Bell dove deep into turn three on the final lap to pass Bubba Wallace, who reported a tire going down a few laps prior. Bell then slapped the outside wall and careened his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota around the middle of turns three and four, much like Ross Chastain did two years ago to advance to the title race.
Byron and Bell ended the race tied for the fourth and final playoff spot, however, Bell had the advantage due to having a runner-up result at Las Vegas Motor Speedway two weeks ago.
After review, NASCAR officials penalized Bell for a safety violation, dropping the driver of the No. 20 from 18th to 22nd, the last driver one lap down.
The ruling pushed Byron into the final spot of the Championship 4 by four points.
Following the race, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition, Elton Sawyer, discussed NASCAR’s decision.
“Yeah, obviously we look at all the video,” Sawyer began. “As I back up on that, you go back two years ago when we had the situation with Ross (Chastain) here. We went to Phoenix.
“There was a lot of dialogue with the drivers that that’s not a move that we want to have to make on the last lap. We were able to get through Phoenix and had a great championship race that year.
“In the offseason meeting with the industry, meeting with our drivers, and to a man that was not a move that they want to have to make,” Sawyer continued. “There was language in the rule back. When you look at it today, clearly got up against the fence there in (turns) three and four, and rode the fence all the way off four there.
“Strictly it’s to protect our drivers as well as our fans. So yeah, it was pretty straightforward.”
An added layer to the final lap was radio communication from multiple teams. As Byron struggled on older tires during the closing laps aboard his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, two additional Chevrolet drivers in Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain rode side-by-side behind him.
Both drivers formed a wall behind Byron, protecting him from losing valuable positions.
“Does the 1’s(Chastain) crew chief know the deal?” a crew member stated on Dillon’s radio during the race.
On the flip side, Wallace radioed to his crew, “I think I got a tire going down” prior to the final lap. Sure enough, Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota slowed as Bell scooted on by.
Despite perhaps suspicious behavior, Sawyer stated NASCAR officials were focused solely on Bell’s move.
“No, if you look at the other situations that were going, 23, the cars behind the 24, really no bearing at this time,” Sawyer said.
“We’ll look at those at a later time. When you really just dissect exactly what happened, look at the situation with the 20 getting up against the fence, then riding the fence, which we clearly stated in our statement after Ross did that, that that would not be accepted.”