NASCAR has certainly got their work cut out for this entire week in deciding the fate of teams and drivers after the Martinsville race last Sunday. In a completely normal scenario, we would be dissecting Ryan Blaney’s heroic run that helped him clinch the championship 4 spot. But the cutoff race at the half-mile oval was far from normal; in fact, it was mired with controversies that NASCAR is still looking to sort out.

The governing body singled out Christopher Bell’s hail melon attempt and withdrew his initial entry for the finale race. But, while Bell was desperately trying to gain a position on William Byron, the Chevrolet buddies did what they could to keep the #24 car safe. Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain were the ones blocking the charge of the Ford cars late in the race. Even Bubba Wallace seemed to have lifted his foot off the throttle on the last lap to allow the #20 to make a pass on him. NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, Elton Sawyer, announced that NASCAR will look into the incidents. So what exactly does this mean for William Byron, who’s already locked in Championship 4? And could we see the drivers involved being penalized?

More penalties could be coming this week

The duo of Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain did everything but race the #24 of William Byron on the final 15 laps of the race. The only thing the HMS driver needed was not to drop a position down; meanwhile, Bell was doing all he could to come back on the lead lap. A single point was the difference between the two drivers in deciding their fates to race for the championship.

With laps winding down, the Chevy drivers stuck to their task and were reminded of their objectives to help the #24. Brandon Benesch, the spotter on the #3 car, was heard saying this on the team radio, “Does the No. 1 CC know the deal?” In response, Dillon‘s crew chief replied, “Yeah, he should.” This is indeed fishy, and NASCAR is likely to drop the hammer on them.

Now, Ross Chastain and Hendrick drivers do not exactly see eye to eye. Last year, the driver of the #1 car was involved in multiple incidents that resulted in fender-bending action. He is one of the drivers who wouldn’t miss an opportunity to pass a car, but something changed during Martinsville. And it just might be because of this radio message he got from his spotter, Brandon McReynolds, “Nice and smart with the No. 24. No. 24 is 1 (point) to the good. Nice and smart here. 2 by 2.”

Meanwhile, Wallace did his best in trying to hide his shenanigans with a call of a flat tire, just as he received a radio message on the final lap. “No. 24 and No. 20 are separated by a point right now.” Next thing you know, Christopher Bell threaded the needle and was fully committed to passing two cars at once. Unfortunately, he couldn’t help but ram into the wall, recreating the hail melon, and that resulted in his ejection from the final 4 after the race.

NASCAR did take the #23 car for a post-race inspection. This isn’t usually the case with a driver finishing mid-pack. If there’s no damage on the race car like Bubba Wallace claimed, a penalty could be incoming. On the other hand, it is hard to speculate if Chastain or Dillon will be booked for blocking the opponents. With Byron advancing to the championship 4, NASCAR isn’t likely to change that outcome for now.

But why do OEM drivers look to help their fellow drivers in a playoff race? What exactly are the perks and benefits of looking out for a fellow Chevy or Toyota driver?

Denny Hamlin explains how OEM favors work out in the Chevy camp

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If you are to look at NASCAR racing, three teams dominate every weekend on the racetrack. These teams are Hendrick Motorsports, Team Penske, and Joe Gibbs Racing. And all three of them are the leaders of their OEM groups, respectively (Chevy, Ford, and Toyota). The news teams often look to form technical alliances with these teams that could help them gain more output during the races.

23XI Racing has a partnership with JGR; similarly, JTG Daugherty relies on Hendrick Motorsports. But the dynamics are different in terms of alliance, and Denny Hamlin explained this on the Actions Detrimental podcast. “The Chevy performance center is run essentially by Hendrick Motorsports. The RCR teams and Trackhouse teams get information from that service center.”

“What happens is that Chevrolet says to Hendrick, we’re going to allow team X to get this information. How 23XI does is we have to pay JGR; how it works with Chevrolet is Chevrolet essentially whatever the cost is to run that service center or whatnot, and then they tell the Hendrick team, which teams they are gonna allow to get the information,” Hamlin added.

So the #1 and #3 teams could potentially lose their key partner status with Chevrolet if they didn’t help the #24. This is why we see drivers from the same manufacturer working together on superspeedways and crucial playoff races. But isn’t the OEM’s involvement to alter the end result hampering the racing itself? That is the question the fans should be asking after witnessing last Sunday’s race.