The 2024 Cup Series season finale in Phoenix was a race without much detrimental drama. The drivers all raced for their own and did not attempt to unnecessarily foil the attempts of others. Joey Logano ended up winning the title with his teammate Ryan Blaney finishing a close second. What led to this smooth occurrence is the hard lesson that NASCAR learned a week earlier in Martinsville.
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The Xfinity 500, the final Round of 8 race, was filled with chaos and race manipulation towards its end. Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon were each fined $100,000 for trying to artificially alter the outcome by intentionally blocking drivers. Others from their teams were levied with similar penalties as well. The promotion faced severe backlash for letting such practices occur.
This is what appears to have got the officials on their feet for the finale. NBC Sports analyst Steve Letarte and Denny Hamlin discussed this in a recent episode of Actions Detrimental. Letarte noted that he could see the big dogs at NASCAR standing in their booth actively watching the race and making sure that the spotters were keeping their drivers in check.
Hamlin responded, “I don’t know whether it was publicly stated or not. But evidently they [NASCAR] say this pretty often. At the end of the Martinsville Race they came on the radio and told the spotters, ‘If it is not your day, get out of the way and let the cars through.’ … I just found it very interesting. I said, ‘Wait a minute, NASCAR said what?’”
The No. 11 driver was taken aback by the promotion’s action and wondered whom they’d spoken to when relaying the message. He hoped that the same instruction was sent across in Phoenix as well, which is more than likely considering the clean outcome. A key component that came to be blamed for the Martinsville disaster was the influence of OEMs.
RFK Racing co-owner Brad Keselowski touched upon this last week in a press conference and detailed how NASCAR limiting practice time has caused teams to increase their dependency on OEMs.
This, in turn, has made them vulnerable against the demands of the car makers such as when they ask a driver to commit an act that would provide an advantage to another driving a similar make.
Straightlining the spotters is but a temporary solution to a more deep-rooted issue. Will NASCAR devise a more permanent measure to fix race manipulation? It remains to be seen. However, it has been confirmed that the playoff format will be reviewed and changes to it will be considered soon.
