The Martinsville Speedway saw a race on Sunday that could instill some doubts among the audience about the extent to which it was ethical. The race saw Christopher Bell get his championship spot taken away and handed to William Byron. However, growing sentiment among fans questions William Byron’s fourth position that came with help from Chevrolet allies. As fans demand greater discussion around the subject, Denny Hamlin found the perfect time to put forth his side of the argument.

William Byron wasn’t alone in receiving help, as Christopher Bell received backlash from the NASCAR community as other Toyota cars seemingly helped him. Denny Hamlin stood strong against this, denying 23XI is part of any such Toyota lobby.

Denny Hamlin pleads 23XI’s innocence amidst mounting fan pressure

On Sunday, something unusual happened on the tracks at Martinsville. In the closing laps of the race, William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports fought for his position to qualify for the Championship 4. However, it looked like Byron had two 3,000 lb shields behind him in Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon. The Hendrick Motorsports driver received help from his Chevrolet teammates to prevent Brad Keselowski, among others, from passing him. The Chevrolets had enough speed to do so themselves. On the other hand, there are speculations that it is not only Chevrolet that has showcased this kind of lobby behavior.

Even Bubba Wallace slowed down which allowed Christopher Bell to get an edge and move forward. While Wallace blamed this on tire dysfunctionality. Wallace competes in a Toyota-supported car for 23XI Racing. Team 23XI  does maintain a partnership with Joe Gibbs Racing, the organization behind Christopher Bell’s No. 20 car.

This incident has raised questions among the audience as to whether this is the norm that other teams would follow and if there is pressure from the manufacturers to maintain such a stance. Clearing the air, Denny Hamlin, in an episode of Actions Detrimental, talks about how this has never been the norm for Team 23XI. Denny Hamlin said, “The only thing I can tell you for a fact because I am part of Toyota Racing never, not once this week told 23XI to do anything for JGR. They were not involved whatsoever. I don’t think I have ever been part of a conversation saying if this happens then you have to do this. They’ve never said that.”

Speaking about how there have never been any kind of rules that the team had to follow, Hamlin said, “They’ve never said that. Even on Superspeedways, they’ve left it up to the teams. You guys figure this out right. We’re gonna provide you what we provide you but we hope you work together. But that’s it. There’s never been any rules that Toyota had led out to say this is what we want you to do”. 

The audience has been getting wary of how this could happen, yet there is no decision against William Byron. As a result, there is now a feeling among the audience that probably each of the engine manufacturers – Chevrolet, Toyota, and Ford instruct teams to maintain a lobby. While Hamlin did mention that they are asked to drive together, there is no rule book that one needs to follow. The pattern followed by the Chevrolet drivers is not ethical and it is a clear indication of how teammates were helping Byron where he is today. If such a scenario continues with the same engine teams helping each other, it would impact the integrity of the teams. 

NASCAR Promises to Take a Deeper Dive into Chevrolet Gang-Up 

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The audience is now getting impatient and blaming NASCAR for being one-sided in their approach. While it took them almost 30 minutes in the same spot to discuss what should be done with Christopher Bell, it seemed as though they needed to remember what Byron did. What seems to be adding fuel to the fire is a radio conversation between Dillon and his crew chief. Citing if Chastain knows about the deal, Dillon said, “Does he know that deal”? His crew chief responded to the same saying, I’m just trying to find them to tell them. Does the #1 crew chief know the deal?” to which another RCR member replied, “Yeah, he should”.

NASCAR competition vice president Elton Sawyer reacted to the same and said, “We watched that. We’re going to take a deeper dive into that, look at the data, look at things like that. We’ll look at everything. As I said earlier, we want to go back, as we would have done anyway. We’ll get back to you, we’ll take all the data, video. We’ll listen to in-car audio, we’ll do all that, as we would any event”. 

While there is growing consensus among the audience that there was a clear manipulation of race and the presence of manufacturer-influenced racing, do you think Byron’s position in the Top 4 stands threatened?