On Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway, a series of events played out that resulted in catching a lot of people’s attention of how Michael Waltrip Racing tried to manipulate the Chase. For starters, Clint Bowyer spun with just under 20 laps to go without contact on the radio. Well it may look harmless, radio traffic would say to have proven otherwise.
NASCAR was faced with a very tough decision this past weekend...how to deal with a team that deliberately manipulated the chase outcome to benefit themselves? Four days later and race fans are still in an uproar over the biggest controversy to rock the motorsports world since the infamous "Crashgate" incident during the 2008 Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix.
He may have only gained a handful of points on Matt Crafton with his win at Iowa Speedway, but Buescher says that "slow and steady wins the race. We're coming for this championship." Following his win at Iowa Speedway, Buescher now sits 37 points behind Crafton.
Sometime over the next ten weeks, at one of ten tracks hosting the Chase, Clint Bowyer will be sailing along. He will feel a sudden nudge in his left rear quarter-final, just a touch but enough to cause him to feel the car getting out from under him. Bowyer will try to save it, and come close in doing so but, alas, his car will find the wall. His race and his Chase hopes, done in an instant.
With everything on the line as far as Chase berths, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 56th annual Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway.
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.
Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway turned into one of the most controversial races in the history of the sport. Fan response to Clint Bowyer’s well-timed and seemingly intentional spin that brought out a late race caution, coupled with an un-needed trip down pit road by Brian Vickers was unprecedented.
In an unprecedented Monday evening news conference after the wild Richmond race on Saturday night, NASCAR dropped the penalty hammer on Michael Waltrip Racing.
Hunter Lawrence [#96] prevailed in the 450SMX Class with his fourth win of the season following a 1-1 sweep of the motos that put him in the points lead for the third time in seven races. In the 250SMX Class.
Top Fuel points leader Shawn Langdon rolled to another big Saturday in front of a capacity crowd at Sonoma Raceway, winning the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge as part of this weekend’s Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals presented by PowerEdge.
LEBANON, Tenn. -- Kyle Kirkwood earned a much needed point to close the gap to Alex Palou by winning the pole for Sunday's Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway.
