NASCAR Fines Cole Custer, Suspends Crew Chief for Race Manipulation

The Stewart-Haas Racing driver appeared to slow down in front of competitors on the final lap of Sunday’s race, helping his teammate advance in the playoffs.

NASCAR has dealt a hefty penalty to Cole Custer, Stewart-Haas Racing and the No. 41 car crew chief, Michael Shiplett, after Sunday’s playoff race in Charlotte. 

Custer appeared to slow down on the final lap, directly into the path of Austin Dillon and Erik Jones. The move allowed Custer’s teammate, Chase Briscoe, to slip through and eventually secure a spot in the next round of the playoffs by a two-point margin. Meantime, reigning champion Kyle Larson was eliminated. 

NASCAR officials said after the race that the incident would be reviewed. Custer was handed a $100,000 fine and docked 50 driver points. Stewart-Haas Racing was docked 50 owner points, and Shiplett was fined $100,000 and suspended indefinitely. 

The penalty, per nascar.com, falls under Section 5.5 of the NASCAR Rule Book. Drivers are required to compete to 100% of their ability and action would be taken if someone tries to “artificially alter” the finishing spots.  

“When we got to the audio, and had the crew chief telling the driver that, ‘I think you got a flat (tire). Check up, check up, check up,’ when he couldn’t even see the car or have any idea whatsoever that the car might have a flat, obviously pretty telling as to what went on there,” Scott Miller, NASCAR Senior VP of Competition, said, per nascar.com. “That coupled with the data and the video and all the rest of the things that we looked into, well, that was the bulk of the things … nothing contradicted the fact that was done deliberately by those individuals, so we were certainly forced to react, and you saw their reaction today.

“We can’t have teams manipulating the finishing order. Certainly on super high alert for the playoffs, and had this been the determining factor in the 14 making it into the Round of 8 or not, our reaction certainly would have been bigger.”

A suspension was considered for Custer, Miller said, but this incident did not rise to a “super-flagrant” offense. The reason for not going that route was “because of the past precedent that we’ve set for sitting drivers down and didn’t feel like this completely fit into the bucket.”

Briscoe still will proceed in the playoffs, Miller said, because he managed to qualify without the benefit of this block. Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric and Alex Bowman are the other three drivers who were eliminated. 

Stewart-Haas Racing will appeal the penalties, according to multiple reports.