Trackhouse Racing Loses Appeal of Martinsville Race Manipulation Penalties
The National Motorsports Appeals Panel (NMAP) heard and considered an appeal by NASCAR Cup Series team Trackhouse Racing on Thursday, relating to the race manipulation penalties from Sunday's XFINITY 500 at Martinsville Speedway, assessed on Tuesday.
After thorough deliberation, the three-person appeals panel, which consisted Thursday of Kelly Housby, Lyn St. James, and Steve York, determined that Ross Chastain and the No. 1 Chevrolet Camaro from Trackhouse Racing did indeed violate the outlined sections of the NASCAR Cup Series Rule Book.
The original penalty will stand in its full form.
In reaching the above decision, the panel provided the following explanation: “We feel in the best interest of racing and to protect the integrity of the sport, it was appropriate to uphold and affirm NASCAR’s decision with regard to the NASCAR rule 4.4, attempting to manipulate the outcome of the race.”
Phil Surgen (crew chief), Brandon McReynolds (spotter), and Tony Lunders (team executive) have been suspended for this weekend's NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway.
McReynolds will be unable to spot in any NASCAR National Series event this weekend at Phoenix Raceway, which will also impact Parker Kligerman and Big Machine Racing -- who have tapped Eric Holmes to serve as interim spotter of the No. 48.
Trackhouse Racing and Ross Chastain will still be required to pay the $100,000 fine assessed by NASCAR, and Chastain has been docked 50 driver points and 50 owner points.
The organization, if they so choose, will have the opportunity to make a final appeal to the Final Appeals Officer (FAO). However, as of the time of publishing this story, no confirmation has been made on whether the team will enact this plan, or not.
Both 23XI Racing (No. 23) and Richard Childress Racing (No. 3) were also given similar penalties on Tuesday for manipulating the outcome of Sunday's event at Martinsville. 23XI Racing chose not to appeal, focusing instead on its Championship 4 effort with Tyler Reddick.
Richard Childress Racing, which had planned to appeal the race manipulation penalties on Thursday (and even had a hearing set for 5:30 PM ET) chose to withdraw its appeal.
