CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — It continued to impact NASCAR ahead of its championship-deciding season finale, as the sanctioning body fined $600,000 and suspended nine team members from three different teams Tuesday for alleged race manipulation at Martinsville Speedway.

Punishments came after a while Contested final race on the Virginia track on Sunday Christopher Bell was initially expected to qualify for the last four of the championship, but was disallowed because his move of hitting the wall and using it for momentum violated a banned safety rule.

That gave William Byron the final spot in this week’s winner-take-all finale at Phoenix Raceway.

But in disqualifying Bell, NASCAR made clear that the actions taken by other drivers in the sequence of events that saw Bell and Byron battling for the final spot in the fourth championship must be carefully scrutinized.

Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, appeared to emphasize that penalized drivers Ross Chastain, Austin Dillon and Bubba Wallace were lucky not to be penalized.

“In this case, we felt like we wanted to focus more on team leadership, something we haven’t done in the past,” Sawyer said. “But I promise you, that doesn’t hinder progress. “We will have meetings with our drivers this week and we will explain this to them and make it clear that we will react if you do anything that compromises the integrity of our sport.”

Drivers have been warned since the scandal in 2013 to always give their 100% and not participate in any race manipulation. This stemmed from the final regular season race of that season, when Clint Bowyer intentionally spun to start a series of events that earned teammate Martin Truex Jr. the final playoff spot.

Truex was kicked out of the playoffs – the scandal ultimately led to the closure of Michael Waltrip Racing – and Jeff Gordon was added as an unprecedented additional driver as he was robbed of the chance to compete for a playoff position. After weekend-long crisis meetings with teams in the playoff opener, NASCAR established the 100% rule.

But the manipulation rule is openly broken at Daytona and Talladega, where manufacturers’ cars run together in the draft and drivers make pit stops. No punishment has yet been given for these situations.

In this latest case, NASCAR determined that Toyota driver Wallace faked a flat tire to give Bell room to move out of the way and hit the wall. The wall-riding move was banned after Chastain performed it to earn the final playoff berth in 2022.

In the Byron case, NASCAR ruled that Chastain and Dillon both intervened to help Byron, a Chevrolet driver, avoid losing any positions at the track that would have cost him a spot in the championship.

Sawyer said the enforcement agency was considering taking action against the Chevrolet and Toyota manufacturers, but said there was nothing in the rulebook that would penalize the manufacturers. NASCAR also planned to meet with leaders from Ford, Chevy and Toyota to discuss the situation.

Since the penalties were imposed during the season finale week, teams have until Wednesday afternoon to request an expedited appeal. The appeals are likely to be heard on Thursday.

Trackhouse Racing, which runs Chastain’s Chevy, said it would appeal just as the 23XI did for Wallace’s Toyota.

“We feel strongly that we committed no violations during Sunday’s race,” 23XI said in a statement. The team is currently He was involved in a lawsuit against NASCAR through the charter system and Tyler Reddick is competing for the Cup Series title on Sunday.

The penalties given were:

Ross Chastain

Chastain was fined $100,000, Trackhouse was fined $100,000, and team manager Tony Lunders, crew chief Philip Surgen and spotter Brandon McReynolds were given a one-race suspension. Chastain is the winner of the defensive race in Phoenix. The team also lost 50 points.

Austin Dillon

Dillon was fined $100,000, as was Richard Childress Racing. Team manager Keith Rodden, crew chief Justin Alexander and spotter Brandon Benesch were given one-race suspensions. The team also lost 50 points. Richard Childress Racing also said there would be an objection.

Bubba Wallace

Wallace was fined $100,000, as in 23XI. One-race suspensions were given to team manager Dave Rogers, crew chief Robert Barker and spotter Freddie Kraft. The team also lost 50 points.

Sawyer had said Sunday that NASCAR would review the Martinsville finish and see if there was any race manipulation in which rival drivers helped other drivers aligned with the same manufacturer.

But he said he hoped the penalties would be tough enough to prevent manufacturer alliances and race manipulation.

“We looked at the last penalty we wrote for a very similar violation … we wanted to increase that penalty,” Sawyer said, and we did. We did this to include team leadership, and that was something we felt we wanted to point out was that we all had a responsibility…. To protect the integrity of the sport.”

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