Last year around this time, Bubba Wallace was hit with a bout of depression. His best friend, Ryan Blaney, had just scored his Martinsville victory and was well on his way to the championship. But the 2024 season is no different, as Wallace reels under a scathing punishment as he attempted to slow down on the final lap in Martinsville to let his fellow Toyota Christopher Bell pass. Accordingly, NASCAR threw a volley of penalties at his team – a $200,000 fine, 50-point redux, and crew suspensions.

Yet Ryan Blaney shows little sympathy for his friend suffering this cruel fate. The Team Penske racer put up a strong fight against his Hendrick Motorsports rivals to clinch the grandfather clock. And Blaney was not happy to have the spotlight stolen from him and thrown on Wallace, Austin Dillon, and Ross Chastain for their race-manipulating tactics.

Ryan Blaney cries foul after stolen glory

The fact that both Team Penske drivers made it into the Final Four should be carved in gold on the headlines right now. Added to that is Ryan Blaney defending his Martinsville victory and throwing up a wide possibility of defending his championship as well. If either Penske driver wins the title, the team will achieve something that Jimmie Johnson last did for his 5-year title streak for Hendrick Motorsports. Yet a completely different NASCAR story is popular at present – the Martinsville fiasco. 23XI Racing, Richard Childress Racing, and Trackhouse Racing are feeling NASCAR’s wrath.

Besides Bubba Wallace’s deal, Dillon and Chastain ganged up to form a ‘rolling roadblock’ for William Byron to retain his position. 23XI and RCR both withdrew their appeals, while Trackhouse’s appeal against the penalty was turned down. Ryan Blaney is glad about the punishment despite his friend being involved. “I’m happy they decided to do something…When you get to those situations in Martinsville, that takes a lot away from the racing aspect of it. You know, the fast cars are going forward, the slower cars are dropping. When you kind of do things like that, it takes a little bit away from the competitive side of it.” 

For most of the Xfinity 500 race, HMS drivers led. William Byron and Chase Elliott shuffled the lead several times, and Kyle Larson led for 71 laps. Eventually, Ryan Blaney passed Chase Elliott for the lead on Lap 486 of 500 and pulled away to win by 2.593 seconds over his HMS rival. In the end, he was extremely ‘tired’ – so letting the penalty news steal his glory ticked him off. Blaney continued, “It’s unfortunate that the amazing 500 laps in Martinsville – the whole race was awesome – a lot got taken away from the whole race because of what happened at the end with the whole deal that was going on. So it takes away from big storylines, takes away from good storylines.” Then he crossed his fingers about Phoenix. “Hopefully, you don’t see it at any time this weekend.”

Despite Ryan Blaney blaming all the teams, Chevrolet had a heavy hand. But one driver brushed that off.

Chevy has more than meets the eye

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When Bubba Wallace executed his illicit act, the evidence did not point so much at Toyota. Soon after hearing about Christopher Bell’s position, he sent out a radio message claiming his tire got loose. Then the No. 23 Toyota slowed down, allowing the No. 20 to get past him. Yet on the Chevrolet side of things, the evidence is a little too glaring. For instance, you hear people talking over Austin Dillon’s radio about knowing ‘the deal’. The No. 3 crew chief was apparently in cahoots with the No. 1 crew chief, who let Ross Chastain know about Chevy’s preferred plan of action. The OEM also tried to influence another driver but in vain.

Shane van Gisbergen lined up right behind Ryan Blaney on the final restart on lap 414. Earlier in the race, the latter had apparently hit the Kiwi driver. So Chevrolet used that as a motivating factor for SVG to react to Blaney. The Kaulig Racing driver heard instructions over the radio, “Okay, don’t forget what the 12 did to you earlier, alright? … That’s a message from Chevrolet.” However, the three-time Bathurst champion and Supercars ace stayed true to his motorsport ideals. Gisbergen brushed off that call with a sarcastic reply: “Copy that.” Then the Xfinity racer went on to cleanly race Blaney on the restart, steering clear of NASCAR’s judicial wrath.

This implicates Chevrolet heavily in this fiasco. NASCAR’s Senior VP of competition, Elton Sawyer, has dropped a hint that OEMS may be penalized in the future. For now, only the teams have to bear the brunt of the penalty – so let us wait and see how this progresses.