MARTINSVILLE, Va. — The finish of NASCAR’s semifinal race at Martinsville Speedway was overshadowed by major controversy on Sunday, as an illegal move and possible race manipulation caused a 27-minute delay in finding out which driver earned the final spot for NASCAR’s championship race.
Ryan Blaney won the race in a must-win situation, claiming the third of four slots for next week’s season finale at Phoenix Raceway. But it was unclear for a long time who earned the last position alongside Blaney, Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick.
On the final lap of the race, Christopher Bell passed Bubba Wallace and then rode the Turn 4 wall to the finish line — earning a position which tied him with William Byron for the final spot and gave Bell the championship berth on a tiebreaker.
But wall-rides have been deemed as a safety violation ever since Ross Chastain’s Hail Melon two years ago, and after nearly a half hour, NASCAR ultimately penalized Bell to remove the points he earned with the move. Byron then got into the championship race.
After leaving a meeting with NASCAR officials, Bell’s team owner Joe Gibbs said he was told a protest of the safety violation was not permitted
Others may come under NASCAR scrutiny after some funny business at the end of the race.
Wallace, Bell’s Toyota teammate, had his car suddenly slow to allow Bell to have a chance to get by.
“I went loose or something broke. I was nursing it,” Wallace said. “Then, (Bell) tried to slide me and I’m like, ‘Brother, I’m trying to bide our time and not crash and bring out a caution, jumble up the whole field.’ That was it.”
Meanwhile, Byron was protected in the final 10 laps by a pair of his Chevrolet teammates (Austin Dillon and Chastain), who were reminded of Byron’s points position on their team radios and refused to pass Byron even though he was a clearly slower car. Had they passed him, he would have lost the position to Bell before the controversial move.
Hendrick Motorsports executive Jeff Gordon called Byron’s inclusion in the championship race “bittersweet” because of the way the semifinal race unfolded.
“You never want to get in on a controversial voice call like this, so hard to get too excited, but we’re in and we’re going to go run for a championship. So that’s the best part.”
Gordon also addressed Byron’s teammates blocking for him and refusing to pass him late.
“You work with your teammates and partners to try and give yourself the best chance to get in. It’s no different than when we go to Talladega and Daytona and how we work together to try to ensure success, but I couldn’t really tell you what was going on there,” Gordon said.
Bell said he “ran a sloppy race” but also pointed out Chevrolet’s blocking.
“It was Martinsville, and it was a Round of 8 cutoff race. Unfortunately, I was on the bad side of it,” Bell said. “It is a shame that it comes down to a ball and strike call like that. You can look at both sides of the fence — the Chevy organization had a lot of blocking going on so that (Byron) didn’t lose positions. I slid into the wall and kept my foot into it. I guess that is a losing move.”
NASCAR did not immediately comment, but is expected to do so later Sunday night.
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(Photo of Christopher Bell: Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images)
