NASCAR drops hammer on Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, and Austin Dillon with $100,000 fines for Martinsville violations
Two days after NASCAR's XFINITY 500 at the Martinsville Speedway, the governing body has taken stringent measures against race manipulators. Trackhouse Racing's Ross Chastain, Richard Childress Racing's Austin Dillon, and 23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace were found guilty and each got a hefty slap of $100,000.
Controversies surrounding race manipulation foreshadowed Ryan Blaney's remarkable win at the 500-lap event. Following the 35th Cup Series race weekend, Toyota and Chevrolet got under scanner for allegedly helping their OEM teammates advance to the Championship 4 round.
Scrutiny knocked on Dillon and Chastain's doors after their radio communication with the team gained traction. It was alleged that the Chevy teammates helped William Byron stay in the front by neither passing the Hendrick Motorsports driver nor letting the rivals overtake Byron's #24 Chevy.
Wallace too wasn't spared, as the #23 Toyota driver was accused of deliberately slowing down on the final lap to let Christopher Bell's #20 Toyota through. Even though the driver and the team denied any wrongdoing, NASCAR said otherwise.
As a result, Chastain, Dillon, and Wallace's actions were found to violate sections 4.4.B&D of the NASCAR Member Conduct of the Rule Book. Thus, each was fined $100,000 and docked 50 driver points. A similar measure was taken against the team owners, slapping each with a $100,000 penalty and a 50-owner points reduction. The scathing penalty amounted to $600,000 in fines in total.
"We're going to react": NASCAR's Senior VP of Competition opens up on the Martinsville controversy
Following section 4.4.B&D breach which includes race manipulation and unsportsmanlike conduct detrimental to NASCAR, the governing body took stern measures. The Senior VP of Competition Elton Sawyer opened up about the exemplary punishment awarded to the teams.
Sawyer emphasized focusing on team leadership, something NASCAR didn't do in the past, and that it's everyone's responsibility to uphold the sport's integrity. The VP outlined a similar race manipulation incident where SHR's #41 team was penalized for aiding Chase Briscoe at Charlotte Roval.
Sawyer elaborated on the ruling and said (via AP News).
“In this case we felt we wanted to focus more on the team leadership, something that we haven’t done in the past. But I promise you that does not exclude going forward. We have meetings coming up this week with our drivers and we will get that point across to them and be very clear that when you do anything that’s going to compromise the integrity of our sport, we’re going to react,” Sawyer said.
23XI Racing has issued a statement following Bubba Wallace and team owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin's harsh penalty. The team has denied any foul play and communicated about appealing the matter.