What was an incredible race and playoff battle at Martinsville Speedway — arguably the best race at the track in the NASCAR Cup Series’ Next Gen car — will instead be remembered for all the wrong reasons.
With Christopher Bell and William Byron separated by one point for the final playoff spot in the Championship 4, shenanigans ensued between both drivers and manufacturers. Byron was running in sixth and quickly losing ground to the top five in the closing laps of the race, but the Chevrolets of Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon ran two-wide behind him, forming a barrier against the rest of the field that kept Byron in sixth.
Bell, who was one lap down to the field in 19th, was going to be out by one point until Bubba Wallace slowed dramatically in the final three laps, which allowed Bell to pass him to make the pass in turn 3. But the No. 20 car missed the corner and had to ride the wall out of turn 4 to take the checkered flag.
Should Christopher Bell race for the NASCAR Championship?
Watch this move on the final lap. pic.twitter.com/3A3BrNe0fd
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) November 3, 2024
Bell had stayed in front of the No. 23 car to clinch the last Championship 4 spot on a tiebreaker, but after an anxious 20 minutes of waiting, NASCAR elected to penalize Bell with a safety violation for riding the wall on the final lap. The penalty dropped Bell four spots (the last car one lap down), and Byron instead joined Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney as the last member of the Championship 4.
At least for now.
Christopher Bell’s Wall Ride & Bubba Wallace’s Slowdown
When interviewed after the race for how he lost all that ground, Wallace explained that he had a mechanical failure that caused him to fall off the pace in the final laps.
“I went loose and something broke, so I was just nursing it,” Wallace said. “… Just trying to bide our time and not crash and bring out a caution and jumble up the whole field. That was it.”
#NASCAR … Bubba Wallace on the last lap and Christopher Bell getting by him pic.twitter.com/kBupKOdOVo
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) November 3, 2024
Indeed, Wallace’s final lap was 24.891 seconds, more than three seconds slower than the final lap for the top five finishers. Seventeen of the first 20 cars to take the checkered flag ran a lap faster than 22 seconds, while Bell’s last lap after missing the corner and riding the wall out of turn 4 was 22.506 seconds.
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