Way Late on This... Martinsville Finish to Cup Race Last Week...  

I think there are more folks on the board that like to see Nascar posts so they can remind us that they don't watch Nascar anymore, than there are those that still watch, or as I do, fast forward through the race, and then watch the last 20 laps or so...  And although it was 5 days ago, for some reason, I just now remembered how screwed up the end of the Martinsville cup race, and was wondering if anyone else saw it, and saw it the way I did....

What happened at the end of the Martinsville race last Sunday, really showed how messed up the whole playoff/final four... team (same team) alliances... team alliances when one driver races for one team, but owns part of another...  manufacture's alliances, etc., are.  And it all played out in the final few laps.  It was a real shi+ show.....

From memory, with about 15 - 20 to go(?), Ross Chastain (Chevy) and Austin Dillion (Chevy) ran side by side directly behind William Byron (Hendrick/Chevy) with no intention of passing Byron... boxing out Brad Keselowsky and anyone else trying to advance ahead of Byron, which assured that the Chevy of William Byron would finish high enough in the final running order to earn enough points to make the playoffs.  It reminded me of Roller Derby...  Sure enough, after the race was over, they dug up some communication between between Austin "I'm proud of you buddy" Dillion and his crew chief or spotter, which indicated that they understood the situation and that blocking anyone from getting around the #24 Chevy of William Byron were the orders from above...

Then you had Bubba Wallace (Toyota)/(car owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing, and we all know that Denny drives for Joe "He Get's Us" Gibbs Racing) go 1/2 speed for the final lap, making sure that Christopher Bell (Gibbs teammate to Denny Hamlin) would be able to catch and then pass Bubba Wallace, which would give him (Bell) just enough points to get the final transfer spot to the Phoenix finale over William Byron.  

When I saw Bubba Wallace's #23 slow way down and move to the high side on the final lap, I said to my wife, "Look at how they are throwing the race... Wallace (Hamlin owned Toyota) is intentionally slowing down so Bell (Gibbs/Toyota) would make the playoffs."  Funny thing was, was that she said, "Is he allowed to do that?" And I said, "Yes but he'll probably say he had a tire going down or something to make it seem like it wasn't on purpose."  Sure enough, after the race, when they played the in car communication with a lap or two to go, you heard the crew chief or spotter telling him that Bell needed a spot...  You could tell that the scenario had already been rehearsed just in case it came down to it...  and it did...  So Wallace began slowing... and then says, "I think I have a tire going down."

Please don't tell me that Bubba was lying...  Not Bubba....

(I remember a few year's back when a crew chief or spotter told somebody (Boyer maybe?) that "Isn't your arm itching?... Why don't you reach up there and scratch it...." or something like that... which was a signal for the driver to do something, which altered who would have made the playoffs and who didn't...  Again... throwing the race/artificially manipulating the outcome....  That might have been the year that Michael Waltrip's team got penalized - I can't remember the details.)

Anyhow, back to the closing laps at Martinsville....  So on the final lap/final set of corners, Christopher Bell gets ahead of the crawling Bubba Wallace, and rides the wall around to the checkered flag, appearing that he (Gibbs/Toyota) had earned the trip to the final four, Byron (Hendrick/Chevy) was out....  Only to then be disqualified/put back for riding the wall while under acceleration coming through turn 4 on his way to the checker... Kind of a snippet of what Chastain had done a few years ago, which was outlawed shortly afterward.  

The end result:  Byron (Hendrick Chevy) gets the final spot to Phoenix, thanks to the blocking by two other Chevys....  Bell gets to be one of the other 36 cars at Phoenix with no shot at the championship, but is still out there with those that do... And Nascar's prince Bubba Wallace came off as a disingenuous A Hole, for anyone that was paying attention...  but it doesn't matter... he 'aint going anywhere....and the legend of Bubba will continue to grow until they make a movie about him.... (zzzzzzzzzzz)

It really made Nascar Cup racing look like amateur hour, to see how easy it was to have participants who have pretty much nothing to lose, totally rig the outcome in such a blatant manner.  That's what happens when you have 35+ cars on the track and 25+ have nothing to really do with "the playoffs" so why not use them to carry out team/owner/other alliances wishes, even if it kills whatever credibility Nascar was supposed to still have left?

The only somewhat bright spot was I saw an uncomfortable-ness, and true embarrassment on the face of Christopher Bell after what had taken place, while he was awaiting the final finishing results and I really think it is because he really was super uncomfortable with the position that he was in... With Wallace throwing things by slowing down, then having the nerve to say that he thought he had a tire down...  The whole thing stunk, and I really don't think Christopher Bell wanted to get in that way, and was probably relieved when he got put back... even though it was stated that the penalty was for wall riding, and not for the Wallace/Hamlin/Gibbs/Toyota tentacles that was actually the real story, and the real disgrace.