Ryan Blaney repeated his glory at Martinsville. But that is not what is on your mind, is it? After the Xfinity 500 race wrapped up, only one thing is dominating the headlines. That would be NASCAR penalizing Christopher Bell’s mimicry of the 2022 ‘Hail Melon’ move. Yet apparently, a few more instances popped up that are scratching NASCAR’s judicial arm. And William Byron, the beneficiary of Bell’s situation, was also involved.

Since Bell received the penalty, his wall ride received the largest attention. On the final lap, the No. 20 Toyota got visibly loose and slammed against the wall. Bell hit the wall again and again as he gassed it to the finish line to clinch 18th place. Yet Bubba Wallace also looked like his accomplice in this maneuver. Byron was quick to observe this even as his own situation also looked similar.

William Byron tries to shift the blame

Well, granted, Christopher Bell’s maneuver looked a tad shady. In the closing laps of the Martinsville race, he had to edge William Byron, whose No. 24 car was fading. Bubba Wallace’s slowing No. 23 car allowed him that window of opportunity as Bell rode the wall to the front. Although it looked like race manipulation, there was room for thought – Wallace radioed his team that he had a tire going down shortly before. In William Byron’s case, though, two of his Chevrolet teammates were involved in apparent race maneuvering. Both Austin Dillon’s No. 3 and Ross Chastain’s No. 1 looked capable of passing a way slower No. 24.

Yet they chose not to, apparently after receiving the information over the radio about William Byron’s jittery points situation. So the media people surrounded Byron post-race, dropping questions about this manipulation. However, Byron quickly shifted attention towards Bubba Wallace‘s moves while shaving off blame from his compatriots. “How about the 23 lifting for a lap? Nobody lifted behind me.” He continued to root for his Chevy teammates, claiming they were racing as best as they could. “Well, they never moved me. But they’re racing hard, they’re still getting in the corner hard. They’re not lifting down the straightaways…big margin to get back to somebody, like the 23 did. So it’s hard racing and we’re all at the limit.” 

Both Christopher Bell’s and William Byron‘s incidents hold past precedents. A NASCAR rule states that drivers must try to get their best possible finish at an event because of egregious race manipulation in the past. In 2013, Clint Bowyer spun on purpose at Richmond to try to get his Michael Waltrip Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. into the playoffs. Then in 2022, Cole Custer was penalized 50 points and fined $100,000 for slowing to let teammate Chase Briscoe gain two spots in an elimination race. These past occurrences make things more difficult for Wallace and the Chevrolet duo of Dillon and Chastain. NASCAR penalties may well be headed their way soon.

Yet one veteran driver blamed it all on the cutthroat playoff system.

The battle gets too crafty

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The full-season points format saw its demise in 2004 when NASCAR embarked on a 10-race postseason. After that, the playoff format evolved multiple times. In 2014, the final 10 races were categorized into four rounds, with a winner-take-all race involving four finalists. Then in 2017, NASCAR introduced stage points – with bonus points on the table, drivers got into a crafty battle. The points rule is why Christopher Bell and William Byron’s compatriots apparently engaged in race manipulation. That prompted criticism from RFK Racing owner Brad Keselowski.

“This should be the last straw on the camel’s back for the playoffs,” Keselowski tweeted shortly after the dust settled. Even TV ratings have fallen since Matt Kenseth won the last race of the full-season points format in 2004. Last season’s winner-take-all title race had just over half the viewers who watched Kenseth’s bid for the championship. So a better and fairer solution would be to return to a season-long title race like Formula 1 and IndyCar have. Granted, both series have smaller TV ratings than NASCAR does in the United States. Yet race fans will tune in for good, hard racing, whether a title is on the line or not. Additionally, drivers would not need to resort to craft shortcuts like Bell’s wall ride or Byron’s Chevy help.

For now, the 2024 championship 4-round is fixed for the Cup Series. Let us wait and see how the penultimate race of the season pans out.