Nascar Penalizes Cup Team, Suspends Crew Chief For ‘Manipulating Finishing Order’ At Charlotte

NASCAR issued penalties to the Stewart-Haas Racing team Tuesday after their No. 41 car was involved in a last lap incident during Sunday’s race on Charlotte’s ROVAL. The race was the cutoff point for NASCAR’s Round of 8 in which 4 drivers were eliminated from the Playoffs. One of those drivers was defending series champion Kyle Larson who was eliminated, while Stewart-Haas driver Chase Briscoe was able to race his way into the next round on the final lap.

Briscoe needed to gain a few spots on the final laps to point his way into the next round. On the final lap Briscoe was racing forward and passing just enough cars to gain enough points to move on. As the field was charging towards the backstretch chicane, Custer appeared to move up and block those behind as Briscoe passed him underneath.

On the NBC Sports broadcast analyst Dale Earnhardt Jr. said: “Cole Custer, throwing a block on everybody.”

Briscoe would indeed make up enough spots and Kyle Larson was eliminated, while Briscoe moved on to the next round.

“I knew the 3 (Austin Dillon) had literally wrecked me two laps before and I was wanting to give it back to him because I was so mad and then I just knew I had to go,” Briscoe said. “It’s a tough spot for the non-playoff guys.

“The 43 (Erik Jones), I kind of put him in a really bad spot and put myself in a bad spot too, but I was just shoving him because I had to get going knowing that every spot was gonna make the difference.

“My team came over the radio and told me I was one point out and that was the 43 car that I needed to pass, so I kind of shoved him out of the way and then the 3 got by both of us and then I had the back straightaway to do a Hail Mary and luckily somebody caught it and I was able to move on.”

About 90 minutes after the finish NASCAR released a statement:

“NASCAR is reviewing data, video and radio transmissions from the 41 car following its incident on the backstretch during the final lap,” the statement read. “NASCAR will communicate the results of the review early this week. Any potential penalties would not affect the Round of 8 field.”

That review was completed Tuesday.

Cole Custer was fined $100,000, while crew chief Mike Shiplett fined $100,000 and suspended indefinitely. NASCAR said the violations came from sections 4.3.A; 4.4.C & 5.5: NASCAR Member Code of Conduct/Performance Obligation of the NASCAR Rulebook.

NASCAR senior vice president of competition Scott Miller met with the media shortly after the penalties were announced. He said officials reviewed the data shortly after the race and that data was pretty telling.

“The 41(Custer) slowed abruptly …on the back straightaway blocking the 3.

“The 14 (Briscoe) went by the 41 and the 3. So obviously with all of the data that we have available to us now data coming off the car for breaks, you know, steering, throttle, and all of the audio we dug into all of that and, and obviously found some things that we felt like we had to react to.”

Miller said the biggest sign was a radio transmission from crew chief Shiplett.

“When we got to the audio and had the crew chief telling the driver that, ‘I think you got a flat checkup, checkup, checkup’ when he couldn’t even see the car or have any idea whatsoever that the car might have a flat pretty obviously pretty telling as to what went on there.”

Miller added that it was clear that Custer didn’t have a flat, using in car videos and replays to confirm that.

“Nothing contradicted the fact that that was done deliberately by those individuals,” he said. “So, we were certainly forced to react.

“Today, we can’t have teams manipulating the finishing order.”

According to Miller after the race they determined that the action by Custer had no bearing on whether Briscoe made the Playoffs or not.

“Had this been the determining factor in the 14, making it into the Round of 8 or not our reaction probably would’ve, well, certainly, would’ve been bigger. The 14 qualified for the Round of 8 without this. But had it not been the case and the 14 would’ve gotten into the Playoffs…we would’ve had to react in an even stronger fashion.”

In 2013, driver Clint Bowyer, racing for the now defunct Michael Waltrip Racing, was accused of intentionally spinning out and causing a caution at Richmond Raceway that ended up putting two of the teams three cars into the Chase as the Playoffs were called then. NASCAR later investigated and found the team had intentionally orchestrated the spin.

In the aftermath Jeff Gordon was put back in contention, an MWR executive was suspended, one the team’s primary sponsor left, and the team eventually folded.

Miller emphasized that this case was different, that while moving Briscoe out of the Playoffs was an option “early on” once it was determined that he would have advanced without the move, that was taken off the table.

“We definitely did spend a lot of time, listened to all the 14 car audio, and there was not a word during the race about teammates or anything on the 14 car radio throughout the race,” Miller said. “They were, concerned and keeping the driver up to speed, how the points were shaking out at different times during the race.

“The only chatter they had on their radio was about kind of where they were points wise with the current running order, but nothing that we could even remotely point to as being any kind of a scandalous conversation on the radio.”

The Stewart-Haas Racing team said shortly after the penalties were announced they would appeal. Recently William Byron and the Hendrick Motorsports team appealed a penalty Byron was handed down for spinning Denny Hamlin under caution at Talladega. The appeals panel doubled the fine but threw out the points deduction given to Byron who advanced to the next round of the Playoffs last Sunday.