{"id":205132,"date":"2025-10-11T12:38:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T12:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/205132\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T12:38:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T12:38:09","slug":"nascar-issues-stern-warning-to-teams-after-charlotte-review-amid-fears-of-race-manipulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/205132\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Issues Stern Warning to Teams After Charlotte Review Amid Fears of Race Manipulation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bank of America ROVAL 400 in Charlotte, the final race of the Round of 12, pushed tensions to the limit. Defending NASCAR<\/a> Cup Series champion Joey Logano and Ross Chastain went wheel-to-wheel for the final playoff spot, with the latter closing the gap to just one point behind the former.<\/p>\n

But a last-lap stunt with Denny Hamlin dashed the Trackhouse Racing driver\u2019s hopes, handing Logano a free pass into the Round of 8. While some hailed the finish as thrilling, the governing body made it clear that further shenanigans won\u2019t be tolerated, reminding the field that any attempts to collude against or favor fellow manufacturer drivers will be dealt with an iron fist.<\/p>\n

NASCAR Draws the Line Following Charlotte \u2013 \u2018No Shenanigans\u2019<\/p>\n

The message is clear: NASCAR doesn\u2019t want a repeat of the chaotic Round of 8 Martinsville eliminator. The sanctioning body intends to maintain complete control of its series and will not tolerate any drivers or teams attempting to conspire against rivals or favor fellow manufacturers.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s eliminator at \u201cThe Half Mile of Mayhem\u201d had a controversial ending. Four of its top drivers, Christopher Bell, Hamlin, Chase Elliott, and Kyle Larson, were eliminated from the playoffs. But the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing driver suffered the worst; he was disqualified after NASCAR noted that Bell violated its rule against riding the wall.<\/p>\n

But beneath the surface, the sanctioning body noticed something sinister. The radio communications revealed that the No. 1 (Chevrolet), 3 (Chevrolet), and 23 (Toyota) teams were well aware of how close the points situation was between Bell and William Byron and were acting upon it.<\/p>\n

Wallace, the driver of the No. 23 Toyota, intentionally slowed on the closing lap to give Bell an advantage. Radio chatter revealed that the No. 1 and No. 3 cars had done the same, effectively blocking Bell\u2019s advance and protecting Byron. Consequently, all three teams were penalized and made an example of.<\/p>\n

This led NASCAR to initiate a continuous review. During the Cup Series race at Charlotte, late-race radio communications between Chastain and Logano revealed their points standings were on their minds. The sanctioning body not only examined these exchanges but also analyzed how surrounding drivers like Cole Custer near Logano and Alex Bowman around Chastain were positioning themselves on track.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the matter, Mike Ford, NASCAR\u2019s Managing Director of Communications, delivered a stern warning. Speaking on the \u201cHauler Talk\u201d podcast, he reminded<\/a>, \u201cWe are planning to make teams aware that our eyes and ears are open to any shenanigans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the officials didn\u2019t find anything concerning at ROVAL, Ford doubled down, \u201cWe have folks in remote race control listening to radio transmissions. We have people in race control itself listening to them. We have a lot of it covered, and there are some things that are going to slip through the cracks, no doubt about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did review it, and nothing rose to the level of a penalty,\u201d he stated, touching upon the ROVAL feature. Furthermore, he added, \u201cI think we have some meetings with teams at a certain point this week\/weekend\u2026 if they need a reminder, \u2018Let\u2019s not put ourselves in jeopardy here.\u2019 Fans should be coming to the racetrack and expecting a straight-up race where each position is fought for as hard as possible, especially at the end of the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we do see or hear something we don\u2019t like, we are going to step in, which we have done several times now.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the playoffs advance toward the Round of 8 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, NASCAR<\/a>\u2018s message is unmistakable: the sport will not tolerate manipulation or gamesmanship, and teams must compete fairly on track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bank of America ROVAL 400 in Charlotte, the final race of the Round of 12, pushed tensions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-205132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}