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NASCAR dishes out $600,000 in fines, suspends 9 over race manipulation
Charlotte, N.C. — NASCAR issued $600,000 in fines and suspended nine team members from three different teams on Tuesday for alleged race manipulation at Martinsville Speedway.
The penalties came down after a contentious final battle Sunday at the Virginia track in which Christopher Bell initially qualified for the championship final four but his move to hit the wall and use it for momentum violated a banned safety rule and was disallowed.
That gave the final spot in this week’s winner-take-all finale at Phoenix Raceway to William Byron.
The race itself was won by Ryan Blanely.
But, NASCAR was clear in disqualifying Bell that it would take a hard look at the actions other drivers played in the sequence of events as Bell and Byron battled for the final spot in the championship flat.
In the case of Bell, NASCAR determined fellow Toyota driver Bubba Wallace faked a flat tire in order to give Bell the leeway to move out of the way and hit the wall.
In the case of Byron, NASCAR ruled that Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon both ran interference to help fellow Chevrolet driver Byron not lose any position on the track that would cost him a spot in the championship.
Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, said the sanctioning body considered suspending the drivers as well as taking action against manufacturers Chevrolet and Toyota. He said there was nothing in the rulebook that would call for the manufacturers to be punished, but NASCAR planned to meet with the leaders of Ford, Chevy and Toyota to discuss the situation.
Because the penalties were issued the week of the season finale, the teams have until Wednesday afternoon to ask for an expedited appeal. The appeals would likely be heard Thursday.
Trackhouse Racing, which fields Chastain’s Chevy, said it would appeal, as did 23XI for the Wallace’s Toyota.
“We feel strongly that we did not commit any violations during Sunday’s race,” 23XI said in a statement.”
The team is currently embroiled in a lawsuit against NASCAR over the charter system and has Tyler Reddick racing Sunday for the Cup Series title.
The penalties that were issued
A $100,000 fine for Chastain, a $100,000 fine for Trackhouse, and one-race suspensions for team executive Tony Lunders, crew chief Philip Surgen and spotter Brandon McReynolds. Chastain is the defending race winner at Phoenix. The team also lost 50 points.
Dillon was fined $100,000, as was Richard Childress Racing. One-race suspensions were given to team executive Keith Rodden, crew chief Justin Alexander and spotter Brandon Benesch. The team also lost 50 points. Richard Childress Racing also said it would appeal.
Wallace was fined $100,000, as was 23XI. The one-race suspensions went to team executive Dave Rogers, crew chief Robert Barker and spotter Freddie Kraft. The team also lost 50 points.
Sawyer had said Sunday that NASCAR would review the Martinsville finish to see if there was indeed any race manipulation with rival drivers helping others that are aligned with the same manufacturer.
But he said he hoped the penalties were harsh enough to curb the manufacturer alliances and race manipulation.
“We took and looked at the most recent penalty that we had written for an infraction very similar… we wanted to ramp this one up,” Sawyer said, “and we did. We did that in a way that included team leadership and this is something that we felt like we wanted to get our point across that it is a responsibility of all of us…. to uphold the integrity of the sport.”
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Stocks roar out of the gate after Donald Trump election win
Stocks and other financial assets are surging after Donald Trump was projected as the winner of the U.S. presidential election and the Republican party gained control of the Senate.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up more than 1,200 points, or nearly 3%, in early trading Wednesday, while the broader S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite each gained more than 2%.
Many investors expect Trump’s victory to lead to faster economic growth and more market-friendly policies.
“The markets are scrambling to figure out what happens next, but for the time being, the market is pricing in a higher growth and higher inflation outlook,” Peter Esho of Esho Capital said.
The price of bitcoin jumped nearly 8% to a record $75,345 before falling back slightly. Trump pledged support for cryptocurrencies during the campaign. Shares of the crypto exchange Coinbase rose 18% and almost all cryptocurrencies surged higher, including dogecoin, which jumped 17%.
Bank stocks, which could benefit from less restrictive regulations, rose in premarket trading. JPMorgan, the world’s biggest bank by assets, gained nearly 7%. Capital One rose 11.3%.
Tesla, led by Trump supporter Elon Musk, jumped nearly 13%. The company’s size gives it a big advantage in the electric vehicle market if, as expected, Trump does away with rebates and tax incentives for electric vehicles, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. Shares of Tesla’s competitors largely fell.
Trump is likely to undo some of the Biden administration’s effort to fight climate change. Renewable energy stocks such as First Solar and Enphase were down by double-digits in premarket trading. First Solar has been a big beneficiary of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.
Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, expects a Republican-led Congress to extend personal tax cuts passed in 2017 during the first Trump administration, while also pushing up federal spending. President-elect Trump is also likely to use “his presidential powers to reduce immigration and impose targeted tariffs on China, Mexico, Canada and the European Union,” Sweet told investors in a report.
Trump has vowed to sharply raise tariffs on imports from China and other countries, darkening the outlook for Chinese exporters at a time when Beijing has relied heavily on ramping up manufacturing to try to revive its slowing economy.
Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind the former president’s Truth Social platform, spiked 36% overnight as it became increasingly evident that Trump was returning to the highest elected office in the U.S.
“Undoubtedly, we are seeing a clear consensus among investors that President Trump would herald higher Federal Reserve rates, weaker global growth and greater geopolitical uncertainty, all of which is bullish for the dollar,” said Matthew Ryan, head of Market Strategy at the global financial services firm Ebury.
The broad U.S. stock market has historically tended to rise regardless of which party wins the White House, even if each party’s policies can help and hurt different industries’ profits.
The S&P 500 has risen nearly 70% since the 2020 election brought President Joe Biden into office. It rallied to records as the U.S. economy bounced back from the COVID-19 pandemic and managed to avoid a recession despite a jump in inflation.
The economy was a key issue for inflation-weary U.S. voters who chose Trump this time around, though mainstream economists have said Trump’s policy proposals would make inflation worse.
contributed to this report.