The only thing certain after the last lap of the cutoff race in Martinsville was Ryan Blaney’s win, securing him a championship 4 spot. However, there was utter chaos and confusion surrounding Christopher Bell’s finish, along with potential race manipulation tactics. The JGR driver was fully committed to his cause and shipped his race car in the fence. For the time being, it looked like he just might have made the transfer.

But, surprisingly, there was no reaction from Bell after he exited his race car. Perhaps he knew that he used the hail melon and that NASCAR was probably going to rule him out. Well, after a long 27-minute discussion, the officials did reach a verdict and penalized Christopher Bell for a safety violation. However, throughout this sequence, Jeff Gluck felt something was off and was expecting Bell to plead his case right from the get-go.

Did Christopher Bell know he was guilty of breaking the safety rules?

Before the #20 Toyota Camry pulled off a hail melon 2.0, something strange happened on the last lap of the race. William Byron, driving the #24, couldn’t afford to lose a spot; meanwhile, Bell needed to gain one to make it through to the final 4. As he approached turns 3 and 4, Bubba Wallace surprisingly got loose and strayed up the racetrack. This allowed the #20 to thread the needle and ride the wall to claim the finish.

Certainly, Bell knew that he had gotten the better of Byron, and he had claimed the fourth and final spot. His reaction should’ve been celebratory, but instead, he had a grimace on his face, which was spotted by Jeff Gluck. “He got out of the car with a grim face, and it seemed to me like he was yeah, they’re probably not going to let this stand. I rode the wall. So then I was kind of surprised, but then afterwards they said, Well, I didn’t do it on purpose, and Adam Steven’s really mad about it, and Gibbs tried to protest it in the hauler.” Gluck said on the Door Bumper Clear podcast.

“My move was completely different than what Ross’ was. I got loose getting into the corner and slid right into the fence.” This was Christopher Bell’s defense after the verdict came in. But why exactly was Bell so unsure about his finish? We saw Austin Dillon celebrate at Richmond, knowing he might have crossed the line. Why didn’t Bell react or protest as soon as he got out of his race car?

This was the mystery Gluck was trying to solve. “If Bell thought, Hey, I didn’t do that on purpose, he should’ve been jumping up and down. He should’ve left his car and gone to the hauler and said, Hey, whatever you guys think happened, that was not a wall ride; there was none of that. If he felt like that wasn’t intentional and he didn’t mean to do that to gain positions. How come he wasn’t out there screaming about it?” 

The big surprise was NASCAR took a long, hard look at Bell’s wall ride for 27 minutes and decided that was the only verdict they reached. William Byron was cleared as the fourth car to race for the championship, and others were let off the hook. But what happened next did take everyone by surprise.

NASCAR dropped the hammer on the leadership group

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On Tuesday, NASCAR announced that they had penalized the No. 1, 3, and 23 teams for violating the NASCAR Member Code of Conduct at Martinsville Speedway. It was evident that the spotters, the crew chiefs, and the team members had way too much leverage in altering the outcome of the race via the team radio. Therefore, addressing the issue at its core, NASCAR banned the crew chiefs, spotters, and team executives from all three teams involved.

The drivers and the owners were handed a $100,000 fine each and docked 50 points from the owner’s and driver’s standings. Although the drivers in this instance were excused from serving the ban, a repeat of such an incident could see NASCAR setting a new precedent. Moreover, they are also looking into making changes to the rule book that can help them penalize the OEMs as well.

“We plan this week to have meetings with all of our stakeholders to make our point very clear going forward that we will include drivers in this if we have to. This is something that’s not gonna be tolerated. We’re not going to be dealing with this, and we’re going to be going to the racetracks and giving our fans the best product that we possibly can on the racetrack. That’s our goal.” Elton Sawyer said this via SiriusXM NASCAR radio.

It’s fair to say NASCAR is taking steps to tackle the issues that might plague the sport. But will this be enough to keep the dirty tactics of drivers and teams at bay? Only time will tell.