The decision was unexpected even to the beat reporters who follow NASCAR daily. After Saturday’s race, thing just didn’t look right, something officials missed. By Sunday at the truck race in Iola, Mike Helton, NASCAR’s President, commented that NASCAR was going to review the race and radio transmissions. That was the first clue that something was up. A timeline was not given, however.
Apparently, officials met most of the day, listening to radio transmissions (first brought to light by ESPN) and race tapes along with official race telemetry. I have to assume the decision was that there had to be something wrong.
To refresh your memory, late in the race at Richmond International Raceway, the race that would determine the Chase, a lot of things happened that changed the lineup for the Chase, or what it looked like at the time. With eight laps to go, Clint Bowyer, of Michael Waltrip Racing spun his car for no apparent reason. That brought out a caution when Ryan Newman was leading and apparently on his way to a win and a spot in the Chase. On the ensuing pit stops, Newman got shuffled back. In the meantime, Ty Norris called teammates Bowyer and Brian Vickers into the pits just as the green flag was waving. The result was that their other teammate, Martin Truex, Jr., ended up making the playoffs. Code-filled radio transmissions between the teams made things look very suspicious. It also allowed Joey Logano to make the field and shut out Jeff Gordon.
The meeting resulted in a change, and some would say a just verdict. All three MWR teams were docked 50 points, Ty Norris was suspended indefinitely from participating, and a $300,000 fine. Newman was placed in the Chase in place of Truex. Justice was served except for one tiny matter. What about Bowyer’s punishment? A spin is a spin, and determining if a driver spins out on purpose is nearly impossible. Why didn’t Gordon replace Bowyer? As it is NASCAR’s practice, the point penalties took place in the regular season standings. The 50 points didn’t hurt Bowyer’s place in the Chase, only his seeding. NASCAR was obviously punishing MWR and not the drivers.
This writer is glad NASCAR took a stand in this matter, but I’m totally surprised this hasn’t happened before. When you have a system that leads to one race where multi-car teams have a driver or two close to qualifying, this is bound to happen sooner or later. I’d say NASCAR is lucky it hasn’t happened before. NASCAR and the media push the Chase from the Daytona 500 in February until Chicago in September, and it has become very lucrative financially to teams, mainly because sponsors want their car in the Chase.
So, as it now stands, put Ryan Newman in the Chase and Martin Truex, Jr. on the sidelines. I’m still shaking my head at the events of Saturday night, but I’m glad it was handled swiftly by the sanctioning body.
