MOTORSPORTS MONDAY: Martinsville Issues Bring About Questions of Integrity

Issues in the final laps of Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series XFINITY 500 at Martinsville Speedway have brought about questions of integrity.

Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

WANTED: Integrity. Respect. Morals. Sportsmanship.

NASCAR brass should post that on its social media channels, or maybe LinkedIn because all of it is in short supply.

The entire Martinsville weekend was overshadowed by drivers, teams, and manufacturers showing little or no regard for any of those attributes. On a weekend that should be a celebration of intense competition, hard-nosed racing, and drivers taking the next step to run for a title in Phoenix, instead, the sport is once again shrouded in controversy and questions.

Let’s back up for a second to spotlight the positives to come from Martinsville. Sunday’s Xfinity 500 was the best short track race in the Gen 7 Cup era at the half-mile Virginia track. Goodyear’s commitment to produce the softest tire the manufacturer had ever brought to a NASCAR weekend appeared to pay dividends. Maybe it wasn’t a complete overhaul like what broke out at Bristol earlier this year, but the softer option tire did bring a variable to the equation.

Not only did the tire challenge crew chiefs and teams on strategy, it also helped the on-track product. Cars were more side by side than in recent Martinsville outings and there were indeed the sought-after “comers and goers” that jumbled up the dynamic of the running order.

It was an encouraging direction in the quest to shore up the Cup short-track package and will be interesting to see if Goodyear decides to go even further in 2025. The intense competition also connects to the effort put in by race winner Ryan Blaney, who with his proverbial back against the wall delivered winning Martinsville for a second straight year to catapult him into the Championship 4.

Blaney was involved in a few spirited fights for positions with several drivers and had to claw his way back to the front when he got shuffled back on a very short restart, that ended only second after the green flew due to Kyle Busch losing a wheel. Because the restart was deemed good, NASCAR picked up the scoring at the next loop past the start-finish line and Blaney lost several positions in the exchange. To make up ground despite having a much superior long-run car than his competitors,
Blaney admitted he was a bit more physical than he’d have liked.

"I’ll be honest with you, that’s the most tired I’ve been after a race in a long time,” Blaney said afterward. “My God, I was tired. I still am. It’s the most worn out I’ve been, for sure. Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, we stuck with it all night. Yeah, it’s nice when things work out like that for you.

“I laid the bumper to more guys than I would have liked tonight. I don’t really do that. That’s not my MO. I kind of had to do it in certain moments. I don’t think anything was super egregious. I wasn’t ever going to lay the bumper to the 9, especially for the lead. It was nice we were able to race without contact there.”

But once Blaney took the checkered flag, there was much more to unpack from Martinsville.

It took more than 20 minutes for NASCAR to determine Christopher Bell’s move to hug the wall through turns three and four was out of bounds and penalized the Joe Gibbs Racing driver. NASCAR outlawed the famed “Hail Melon” move by Ross Chastain in 2022 citing safety as the main reason and it’s hard to argue at least the second half of Bell’s excursion checked that box.

The punishment took Bell out of a Championship 4 berth making William Byron the beneficiary, who thought he missed the Phoenix opportunity by a tiebreaker. However, Byron was also mixed up in the controversy, which brings us back to the integrity, respect, morals, and sportsmanship conversation.

As Byron tried to nurse his worn-out tires to the finish line, he was ahead of Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain, who appeared to be stuck in their positions and not attempting to get around the No. 24 car. That fishiness appears to be founded by the radio communication that was uncovered between the Richard Childress Racing and Trackhouse Racing teams, instructing their drivers to let fellow Chevrolet driver Byron maintain his spot and transfer to the Championship 4.

Oh, and for good measure, Toyota got into the act with Bubba Wallace, after being told where Bell was on track and the spot he needed to advance suddenly pulling up the track with "a tire going down".

The illicit activity has NASCAR diving into details to determine if indeed manipulation was happening. While the actions may not have been as nefarious as the Michael Waltrip Racing scandal at Richmond in 2023, they are in close proximity to Stewart-Haas Racing's ill-fated orchestration in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series race at The ROVAL, which resulted in penalties including a suspension for Cole Custer's crew chief Mike Shiplett. Needless to say, it's another bad look for the sport at the absolute worst time of the season.

Some were quick to blame the Playoff format and the system for the shenanigans. That's a giant cop-out. Blaming the system, or even "society" as someone pointed out on social media for individual or team actions is weak. The same holds true for some drivers and their tired "did what I had to do" excuse and why they had to "ship" someone into the wall as was said ad nauseam over the Martinsville weekend.

Everyone is responsible for their own actions but it's easier to blame others. Should NASCAR find enough evidence to punish RCR, Trackhouse, 23XI, Chevrolet, or Toyota then that hammer of justice should hit hard. Suspensions, monetary fines, taking away wind tunnel time -- hell, getting parked for the race -- anything should be on the table to ensure the integrity and credibility of the sport is upheld.

Sometimes the garage is its own worst enemy. This is one of those times and a price needs to be paid.