Let’s recap for those who may not be up to speed.

Christopher Bell and William Byron were battling for the final spot in the championship round of the playoffs, and if Byron had gotten passed by just one car, Bell would advance.

Lucky for Byron, the two Chevys directly behind him (Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain), who were both clearly faster than Byron, chose not to do so (and radio communications back up that this was by design). It’s obvious this came from the very top at Team Chevy, and their actions are a black eye on the sport, and are likely to incur some serious penalties this week after NASCAR examines all the data.

This Chevy blockade meant that Bell had to pass fellow Toyota driver Bubba Wallace to make the Final Four. And he did, but then rode the wall for a short wide (a la the Hail Melon), so he was disqualified from the championship due to that move being deemed a safety violation. There’s also rumblings that perhaps Wallace let him pass a bit too easily, and wasn’t truthful when he said a tire was going down on his car that caused him to slow. This is also under investigation by NASCAR.

In the end, after a half hour of deliberation, NASCAR gave the fourth spot in the championship race to Byron, saying the only part of Sunday’s finish they examined immediately after the race was Bell’s wall-riding.

“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 the 24 (William Bryon) didn’t lose positions. I slid into the wall and kept my foot into it. I guess that is a losing move,” Bell said after the race. “I was trying to get by the 23 and whenever I did, I was kind of pinned in between the 10 and the 23 and slid into the wall. Whenever I slid into the wall, I knew that I had to have that position and just tried to get to the line. I didn’t intentionally floor it and go into the fence; I slipped into the wall and that’s all she wrote.”

The decision to exclude Bell, to be frank, is ridiculous. To my mind, the fact that a manufacturer likely ordered their drivers to not pass Byron, thus directly influencing the outcome of the championship, is 10 times more egregious of a violation than any wall-riding done by Bell. And bottom line is that without Chevy’s meddling in the race, the move by Bell to pass Wallace would never have been necessary. Bell was punished for a move he should have never had to make.

The manipulation of the race finish by the Chevys is equally bad, or perhaps even worse, than the “Spingate” controversy that shook the foundations at Michael Waltrip Racing over a decade ago.

NASCAR has some big decisions to make the days ahead, and I’m very curious to see what additional punishments are handed out. The radio chatter they're scouring is damning to Dillon and Chastain teams, so I anticipate some major punishment to the 3 and 1. And if Bubba really didn’t have a tire going down, he and the 23XI No. 23 team could be in some major trouble as well.

But what can be done to Chevy (and possibly Toyota) for their participation in this sham? That will be the biggest question that NASCAR must answer this week. How do you properly punish the manufacturers who help put the cars on track every week, send a message, but maintain those important relationships? And to be clear, they deserve a significant message sent their way, even more so than the drivers.

Over the years, the manufacturers have started to stick their noses in the on-track racing action more and more, to the detriment of the sport. Famously this year, young Chevy driver Parker Retzlaff got in hot water with Team Chevy because he pushed Ford driver Harrison Burton to the win at Daytona instead of Chevy driver Kyle Busch. Retzlaff was doing what he had to do in order to give himself the best shot to win, as he should, but his actions were then questioned by Team Chevy.

That narrative has continued throughout the season, as drivers are now under pressure to line up behind their corporate teammates so the manufacturer has the best shot to win, even if it’s not the best option for the driver.

This is flat-out unacceptable and will ruin the sport if it’s not curbed immediately. Racers should race to win, period, not be beholden to some suit in an office telling them how they have to race. And if drivers are willing to do so, it’s a sign of what NASCAR legend Mark Martin today called “low integrity” in today’s drivers.

On top of everything else, the decision to disqualify Bell also makes NASCAR look like they are in the tank for Team Hendrick and wanted to make sure that a Chevy made the Final Four.

One alternate outcome many have suggested is disqualifying both Bell and Byron from the championship four, which would move Kyle Larson (the season’s best overall driver) into the final position. But that would just swap in a different Hendrick driver.

Quite honestly, the entire situation makes me sick about the sport I have loved for three decades. This is not what we signed up to watch. After nearly 500 brilliant laps full of great battles throughout the field, this manipulated ending left a nasty taste in all of our months that’s not going to go away anytime soon. NASCAR must send a strong message this week with any punishments that will make it clear that no such manipulation will be allowed in the final race at Phoenix. 

If the sport wants to grow, it has to have integrity. This week’s punishments must be harsh enough to dissuade the manufacturers and drivers from repeating this type of activity and marring the championship battle and the action in 2025 and beyond.

On the driver’s side, if that means we only have a Final Three drivers at Phoenix instead of four, that’s fine with me.

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