NASCAR COO Steve O’Donnell slams Martinsville race manipulation, reveals message for manufacturers ahead of Phoenix

NASCAR COO Steve O’Donnell assailed against the race manipulation which took place during this past Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

O’Donnell, speaking with the media at Phoenix Raceway ahead of Sunday’s season finale, said he and everyone at NASCAR were “pissed” off by the actions of multiple teams, OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and drivers at Martinsville.

NASCAR Chief Operating Officer Steve O’Donnell on Martinsville race manipulation acts: “It pissed everyone off at NASCAR.” pic.twitter.com/oD9BOrfs53

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) November 8, 2024

“To what just happened at Martinsville, I would argue before what we saw, one of the best races again that I’ve seen in the playoffs,” O’Donnell said. “And it’s unbelievable again that we’re sitting here talking about this topic. I’ll probably get in the trouble for saying this, but I’ll say it anyway. I’ve been around a long time, and Bill France used to say being pissed off was not a plan. What I saw at Martinsville pissed me off. And it pissed everyone off at NASCAR because we all know better, and we know what happened.

“So, we do have rules in the rulebook where we can address it, and we did. We had a call with our OEMs where we were very clear in what our intentions are going forward. Do we have a rule right now where we can do something? We don’t. Will we have a rule next season? 1,000%, and they’re aware of that and they’re aware of if anything happens this weekend, which it won’t, but we will react.”

Christopher Bell made a last lap pass on Bubba Wallace, a fellow Toyota driver, to secure at the time his spot in the Championship 4 at Phoenix. Wallace ran 2.4 seconds slower than Bell on the final lap, appearing to slow up to allow Bell to catch up and go by him. Bell needed to pass Wallace to claim the final transfer spot over William Byron.

NASCAR sending stern message to drivers about future race manipulation

At the same time, Byron couldn’t afford to have another car pass him in the closing laps of the race. Fellow Chevrolet drivers Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon formed a blockade behind him, and it’s clear based on their radio audio they were well aware of what was at stake for Byron.

“24 is one to the good, one point to the good,” said Chastain’s spotter, Brandon McReynolds.

“Does the 1 team know the deal,” said Dillon’s spotter, Brandon Benesch. “Yeah, he should,” was the response from crew chief Justin Alexander.

Chastain, Dillon and Wallace were levied a penalty of a loss of 50 driver points and a $100,000 fine. In addition, NASCAR fined the owners of each team $100,000 and deducted 50 owner points each. Crew chiefs Phil Surgen [Chastain], Alexander [Dillon] and Bootie Barker [Wallace], along with their respective spotters McReynolds, Brandon Benesch and Freddie Kraft, were suspended for the race at Phoenix.

O’Donnell said that moving forward, drivers will be punished for further instances of race manipulation.

“We have a meeting with our drivers on Saturday,” O’Donnell said. “The reason we chose not to penalize the drivers… we made a decision that the drivers are holding the wheel. That the drivers were told essentially what to do. We gave them the benefit of the doubt. Saturday’s message from [senior vice president of competition] Elton [Sawyer] to the drivers will be that that’s your warning.

“We know what happened and going forward we’ll have to penalize you as well. What do our words mean? We’re not going to let people, drivers, teams, OEMs challenge the integrity of the sport.”