NASCAR announced on Wednesday (Nov. 27) it has fined team owners Rick Ware (owner of Rick Ware Racing), Jay Robinson (Premium Motorsports) and TJ Puchyr (Spire Motorsports) $50,000 each for manipulating the end of the Cup Series finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“Following a thorough review of race data and driver/team communication from the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, as well as interviews with several competitors, NASCAR has determined that the Nos. 15, 27, 52 and 77 teams have violated Sections 12.8.g and 12.8.1 of the NASCAR rule book, which addresses manipulating the outcome of a race,” Scott Miller, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, said in a statement. “As a result, those teams in violation of the rule book have been penalized as listed in the penalty report.”
Along with the $50,000 fine, each of the four cars were docked 50 points in the team owner standings for altering the finish of the race.
Both Scott Eggleston, competition director for Premium Motorsports, and Kenneth Evans, competition director for RWR, were fined $25,000.
With the penalty, Premium’s No. 27 car loses out on being the highest finishing non-chartered car in the owner standings.
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Dustin joined the Frontstretch team at the beginning of the 2016 season. 2020 marks his sixth full-time season covering the sport that he grew up loving. His dream was to one day be a NASCAR journalist, thus why he attended Ithaca College (Class of 2018) to earn a journalism degree. Since the ripe age of four, he knew he wanted to be a storyteller.
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So, what did they do?
Jim Utter reported that the 15, 52, and 77 all parked with “mechanical issues” to allow the 27 to finish high enough to beat the 96 in owners’ points for the season.
NA$CAR is desperate to try to maintain value in their “charters”
Hey Dustin, how about you use your journalism degree to do a little research and give us the back story on this? How could 4 back markers finishing 35th through 38th and 20 laps behind affect the race outcome?
essentially, the 27 owner paid off the other teams to park their cars so the 27 could finish higher.. This allowed the 27 to be the highest finishing non-chartered team of the year (by 1 point- so they needed all three teams to park.) From what I understand, this gives them first dibs on purchasing a charter if one NASCAR takes a charter from a team (which they can do if a chartered team finishes in the bottom 3 for 3 years in a row.)
The points fines move the Gaunt Brothers Racing Team 96 team back into the highest finishing non-Chartered team, where they were BEFORE the other teams parked.
I’m not sure how to find out if a team is currently in danger of loosing a charter, but it makes sense that someone is for Premium Motorsports #27 team to go thru all of this.
This is the best comment I have read out of 200 online. That reason makes more sense than just the prize money difference. The Start and Park Teams have figured out how to game the Charter system. It would be helpful to better understand the payouts to Charter vs. Unchartered Only that would reveal if buying the Charter is worth it now or just a requirement to keep start and parking, er, competing with “full intensity at all times”
I’m glad “eddo” could clear this up as the post says nothing. I have no reason not to buy this story. I also noticed the 96 started running more races towards the end of the year. I’m guessing to try and maintain that spot as if it can get a charter, it can get more money. That 96 car is actually decent.
Imagine how much fine money would be piled up if NASCAR fined itself for race manipulation for every flimsy caution called over the years.
“Race (actually event) manipulation” can be combined with “Actions detrimental to stock car racing (using the term very loosely)” as a criteria for the fines to NA$CAR.
In a hierarchy, like the US Government or NASCAR:
CORRUPTION STARTS AT THE TOP AND WORKS ITS WAY DOWN.
I guess this shows how desperate the ‘lower tier’ teams are, trying to survive in todays Nascar. Given the amount of ‘TV time’ any teams except the top 16 got for the last 10 races, I’m amazed that the other teams can scrape together any sponsorship at all. Fighting for the scraps.
It seems NA$CAR doesn’t like a team manipulating the final standings although they’ve done it at least 7 times.
Geez, why didn’t they just put the tires on the wrong side or place a huge piece of tape on the grill. Of just make sure they lose more laps during the course of the race. There’s no way to prove such manipulation unless you make it obvious or talk about it.