After late-race radio communications became a hot topic at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, NASCAR will meet with teams before the Round of 8 to stress that manipulation won‘t be tolerated.
“At a certain point during this week, we will just remind teams, ‘Let’s not put yourselves or ourselves in jeopardy here,‘ ” NASCAR managing director of communications Mike Forde said during the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast. “Fans should be coming to the race track and expecting a straight-up race where each position is fought for as hard as possible, especially at the end of a race.
“If we do see something or hear something we don’t like, we are going to step in, which we’ve have done now several times. So we are aware, and if we hear something, we will certainly react if necessary.”
After essentially eliminating Ross Chastain from the playoffs on the final lap of the Roval, Denny Hamlin said he wished his No. 11 team had clued him into the No. 1 Chevrolet‘s points situation.
RELATED: Ride along with Ross Chastain on final lap at Roval
But Forde said that any communication would likely have prompted a review by NASCAR.
“I think we would have looked into it for sure,” Forde said. “If we heard that radio transmission say, ‘Hey, (Chastain) needs this point to advance to the next round over (Logano)‘ or something of that ilk, and all of a sudden, (Hamlin) let off the gas, that would probably raise a red flag on our side.”
Forde said NASCAR took no action after reviewing the late-race radio transmissions of Alex Bowman and Cole Custer because their team communications drew attention on social media. Custer was racing behind Joey Logano, who captured the last berth in the Round of 8, and Bowman was near Chastain.
“The beauty of social media in this era is we have thousands of officials sitting at home and reviewing HBO Max cameras, and listening to radio transmissions,” Forde said. “So it’s very, very difficult for anything to slip by. So we did review (the transmissions of Bowman and Custer), and nothing rose to the level of a penalty.”
During the Xfinity Series race Saturday, NASCAR warned two teams that already were locked into the next round about discussing the points scenarios for other teams that had yet to advance.
“It’s not a message of ‘You can’t talk about points,‘ it’s more of a message that if you’re talking about points, it should be about your car and your vehicle and not other vehicles that are in play,” NASCAR senior director of racing communications Amanda Ellis said during the podcast.
Forde said the discussion by the Xfinity teams occurred early in the race and was unrelated to any maneuvers that could be regarded as manipulation.
“There was no point where this was questionable (or) problematic,” Forde said. “But we wanted to get ahead of it with the teams just to say, ‘Hey, if this is the end of the race and you’re still doing this, it’s not going to be good for anybody. Because if you talk about points and then have some actions that are questionable, you’re going to be in hot water.‘ ”
Chastain was eliminated from the playoffs after a pass by Hamlin on the final lap. Both drivers spun and lost multiple positions when Chastain tried to bump Hamlin aside in a last-ditch effort to make the playoffs. If the move had been successful and kept Chastain in the playoffs, Forde said NASCAR would have considered penalizing the Trackhouse Racing driver.
“It’d be tricky,” Forde said. “Is that an aggressive move to try to take a position when you have no other options? Or is that over the line? And that’s something we would have to determine in race control, but we would certainly have to look at it if it was successful.”
Other topics covered by Forde and Ellis during the 36th episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:
— Why it took 15 minutes for NASCAR to sort out the finishing order of the Xfinity race after a last-lap caution.
— The disqualification of Riley Herbst‘s car for being underweight.
— NASCAR‘s take on two cars driving across the finish line in reverse.
— The future of the road-course tire that produced falloff in lap times at the Roval.
— The tire choice for Sunday‘s Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Click on the embed above to listen or search for “Hauler Talk” wherever you download podcasts to hear it on your phone, tablet or mobile device.
Nate Ryan has written about NASCAR since 1996 while working at the San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA TODAY and for the past 10 years at NBC Sports Digital. He is a contributor to the “Hauler Talk” show on the NASCAR Podcast Network. He also has covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.
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