The NASCAR Cup race at the Martinsville Speedway provided plenty to talk about. From the Championship 4 contenders being confirmed to the crazy antics in the race, Martinsville had it all. However, the biggest talking point has to be the questionable tactics used in attempting to reach the Championship 4. Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano, and Ryan Blaney were all off the hook, but the same couldn’t be said for William Byron and Christopher Bell. However, Kevin Harvick pointed out something interesting and even made a confession.

According to him, this sort of thing happens all the time. Politics will often dictate the proceedings just to get an extra edge. He noted that while there are rules in place, the trick is to find the loopholes. There will be many times when the line between legality and rule-breaking will be blurred. According to Harvick, the teams will continuously push the boundaries until NASCAR finally decides to put its foot down.

It does not matter if it is during a restart or in the middle of a race; push will come to shove. In the case of Byron and Bell, the duo were squabbling over one point, and the teams were willing to risk everything. This isn’t just limited to a short track like Martinsville, but it can happen at any track. Owing to that, the 2014 Cup champion doesn’t believe that the teams were doing anything untoward. This was just a byproduct of NASCAR being a big business, especially with the politics of three manufacturers involved.

Kevin Harvick revealed that the politics is part of NASCAR

Harvick noted on his podcast, “Well, we openly talk about it at the speedways, all the time. It’s definitely a manufacturer race, there’s a plan that goes along with it. The rest of the races are no different. I hate to tell you, but if you’re not into the politics of whatever you’re doing, you’re in big trouble. There’s politics in everything that we do. When you look at the things that the manufacturers and teams talk about, things they need to execute. How you help the partners that are within the same brand, not new.”

He could sympathize because he had been a victim of this in the past. The most recent example was the 2020 season, where he missed out on a Championship 4 berth. That happened when the Joe Gibbs Racing and Leavine Family Racing worked together to bundle him out of contention. To achieve that, Christopher Bell held station behind future teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.

However, it is worth mentioning that Kevin Harvick confessed that one of his own teammates did not aid him. Despite much prompting, he refused to name and shame said teammate. Then he pointed out a more well-known example, which was the mess involving Bowyer and Michael Waltrip Racing. The end result was Jeff Gordon being added to the Chase for the Cup, as a 13th driver.

Were there any consequences for the 2024 Martinsville saga?

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Harvick continued, “It’s a tough line to say what’s too far. When you go back and look at last night, the #23 car was still in inspection, sitting there with Ryan Blaney. I’m sure that it was, ‘Okay, is there something broke? Is there a tire flat?’ There’s a lot of questions that come from both scenarios with the #24 and the #20, and the #23. I’m not saying that anything was right or wrong because I don’t have those answers. Those are answers we’re going to have to hear from NASCAR. What they think and what that line is.”

On the race track, Bubba Wallace easily letting Bell past, was a bit suspicious. The same applied for Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain refusing to overtake William Byron. What incriminated them further was the unearthing of post-race radio communications between the two Chevrolet teams. The idea was for Chastain and Dillon to form a Chevy wall to protect William Byron’s Championship 4 spot.

Of course, NASCAR was not about to take the race manipulation lying down. They came down heavily on the teams with fines, deductions, and suspensions. As such, Ross Chastain will head to Phoenix without his crew chief, competition executive, and spotter. Austin Dillon and Bubba Wallace will also lose their crew chiefs, competition executives, and spotters. NASCAR suspended nine people and issued a total of $600,000 in fines to teams and drivers for their role in manipulating the end of last weekend’s Cup race at Martinsville Speedway.