NASCAR explains the decision against Bell that sends Byron to the championship race

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – NASCAR officials focused solely on whether to penalize Christopher Bell for driving into the wall on the final lap of Sunday’s elimination race at Martinsville Speedway during the approximately 25 minutes it took to complete a to make a decision.

NASCAR ultimately penalized Bell for what it called a safety violation, dropping him from 18th to 22nd after the race. Bell, who finished a lap behind the leaders, was dropped into the last car among those one lap down. This allowed William Byron to secure the final spot in next weekend’s championship race at Phoenix Raceway, along with Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick and Martinsville winner Ryan Blaney.

Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition, said officials, however, were not focusing on the Chevrolet cars of Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon running side-by-side behind the Chevrolet of Byron, who could not afford another position to lose in the competition. final laps. Also, officials wasted no time on the issue of Bubba Wallace’s Toyota slowing on the final lap, a move that allowed Bell’s Toyota to pass and seemingly gain the point he needed to advance.

“If you look at the other situations that occurred (Wallace) and the cars behind (Byron), it really has no impact at this point,” Sawyer told reporters Sunday night. “We will look at that at a later date.

“But when you break down exactly what exactly happened, look at the situation with (Bell) and against the fence and then drive over the fence, which we clearly stated in our statement after Ross (Chastain) did that (in 2022 ), that that would not be accepted.”

NASCAR announced on February 1, 2023 that it was banned the “Hail Melon” move Chastain made when he hit the wall in Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap of the 2022 Martinsville playoff race. Chastain used the desperation move to gain five spots and take the last spot in the title race from Denny Hamlin.

NASCAR stated at the time that it was not adding a rule, but noted a portion of the rulebook that covered this rule.

Section 10.5.2.5.A of the Cup rulebook states: “Safety is a top priority for NASCAR and NEM. Therefore, violations deemed to endanger the safety of an event or otherwise pose a dangerous risk to the safety of participants, officials, spectators or others will be treated with the highest degree of seriousness. Safety violations will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.”

Wallace slowed on the final lap and Bell passed Wallace entering Turn 3. Bell drove to the wall and drove from the middle of the turn past the SAFER barrier through Turn 4 before driving off it on the front stretch.

After the race, Wallace told reporters: “I got loose or something broke and took care of it and then (Bell) tried to let me slide. I’m like, ‘bro.’ I’m just trying to bide our time and not crash and give a warning and mix up the whole field.

Bell defended his actions by driving into the wall.

“My options are to slide into the wall or spin out,” Bell told NBC Sports. “I can’t spin out of it, so I slid into the wall.”

Regarding the time it took for the results to be announced, Sawyer said: “We want to get it right first and foremost. This is not something that happens every week. We want to be prepared.

“I thought our team in the tower did exactly what we had to do. Let’s do this right.

“Luckily we don’t have it every week. It’s something we’ll come back to and find out if we certainly could have made that decision sooner. I didn’t know it lasted – you could have told me it lasted about 55 minutes or so. Don’t know.