William Byron Advances To NASCAR Championship 4 In Phoenix But Not Without Drama

Yesterday at 11:09 AM

By Jerry Jordan, Editor

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Chicanery, subterfuge and skullduggery – all words that could be used to describe the racing in the final laps at Martinsville Speedway and as two Chevrolet teams looked more like NFL linemen blocking for William Byron and a Toyota teammate to Christopher Bell slowed dramatically, allowing Bell to pass using the outlawed "Hail Melon" move.

The result was a 27-minute delay in Byron and Bell finding out which one would be advancing to the NASCAR Championship 4 next week at Phoenix Raceway. Byron was the chosen one but the decision wasn't without controversy as Bell was ruled to have used the "Hail Meon" made famous by Ross Chastain two years ago to make the playoffs but was later banned. Bell made a pass on Bubba Wallace but said he got into the wall. He said he was loose and he believes it was clear his wall ride was unintentional. NASCAR didn't agree and the decision is unappealable.

However, that's not the only controversy; NASCAR is planning to review whether Wallace slowed down to let Bell around to get the point he needed to advance to the Championship 4, and they are also reviewing radio traffic indicating a "deal" between Chevrolet teams helping Byron.

In-car audio from the No. 3 of Austin Dillon with the spotter asked if Ross Chastain knew "the deal" as they appeared to be blocking like NFL linemen protecting a quarterback behind William Byron. Dillon's spotter was looking for Chastain's spotter, "Does the 1 crew chief know the deal?"

"Yeah, he should," came the reply from the spotter.

The No. 1 car radio traffic stated, "The 24 is one to the good, one point to the good. Now, they're even …"

Had Dillon or Chastain passed Byron, a Chevrolet team would not have advanced to the final round of the playoffs.

Following the race, Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, said NASCAR would continue to investigate the incident.

"Yeah, we’ll look at everything," Sawyer told the media. "As I said earlier, we want to go back, as we would have done anyway. We’ll get back, we’ll take all the data, video. We’ll listen to in-car audio. We’ll do all that, as we would any event."

A decision from NASCAR on any potential penalties is expected by Tuesday afternoon.