NASCAR's championship weekend shrouded in off-track drama

AVONDALE, Ariz. — NASCAR heads into its championship weekend locked into a federal antitrust lawsuit with NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan. Its officiating has been under months-long scrutiny, and this week it issued a wave of hefty fines for alleged race manipulation in the final playoff qualifier.

And Truck Series championship contender Ty Majeski was fined $12,500 for skipping media obligations in North Carolina on Tuesday so he could vote in person in his home state of Wisconsin.

Other than that? Three champions will be crowned starting Friday at Phoenix Raceway.

But those national series races have become a sideshow to the off-track drama that has engulfed NASCAR the last several months. The four drivers who are competing in Sunday's winner-take-all finale have tuned out the distractions, starting with Tyler Reddick, who made the final four for the first time in his career and is trying to give Jordan his first championship since Jordan became a team owner in 2021.

"No, for me, and for our group, it is championship weekend and everything else is not in our focus," Reddick said Thursday.

A federal judge in North Carolina is due to rule Friday — the same day of the Truck Series championship and the first practice for the Cup Series — on a preliminary injunction filed by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports. The two teams refused to sign NASCAR's take-it-or-leave-it offer in September on a new revenue sharing agreement and instead have sued both NASCAR and chairman Jim France.

Now the teams want to be recognized under the charter agreements as they proceed with a lawsuit that accuses NASCAR of being "monopolistic bullies." The ruling is due the same day NASCAR is slated to give its annual "State of the Sport" address.

Ryan Blaney, the reigning NASCAR champion who is seeking to become the first driver to go back-to-back since Jimmie Johnson won five Cup titles in a row from 2006 through 2010, said the off-track issues have nothing at all to do with him or Team Penske. Blaney and teammate Joey Logano give Ford and Roger Penske a 50 per cent chance to win a third consecutive Cup title.

"For me it feels normal because I am not a part of any of it," Blaney said. "I am part of what I am doing, the championship, so it's nice to not be a part of any of the things going on outside sheer competition. For me, it's a great week, championship week and we've got a chance to do it. To me, it's normal."

NBC Sports does not think the off-track drama will spill into coverage of the three national series races at Phoenix.

"I think during the race, we are here to crown a champion and I can't imagine us talking about anything other than that," said analyst Jeff Burton, who said play-by-play announcer Leigh Diffey is unlikely to declare Reddick the winner in the same breath as "but there's a lawsuit!"

But there are other issues pending.

NASCAR on Tuesday levied $600,000 in fines and suspended nine members of three different Cup teams for alleged manipulation at Martinsville Speedway last weekend. NASCAR ruled Bubba Wallace of 23XI helped fellow Toyota driver Christopher Bell by allegedly faking a flat tire. That allowed Bell to hit the wall to avoid Wallace and ride it for momentum to claim the final spot in the playoffs over William Byron.

But that move had been ruled illegal after Ross Chastain did it in 2022, and it took NASCAR officials nearly 30 minutes post-race Sunday to decide if Bell was disqualified or not. He was, and Byron of Hendrick Motorsports got the final spot.

"It was excruciating," Byron admitted Thursday. "It was so long. I was honestly numb to it. I was just preparing for not being in and thinking we had done all we needed to do to get in."

NASCAR also ruled Tuesday that fellow Chevrolet drivers Chastain and Austin Dillon acted as blockers for Byron over the final few laps to prevent anyone from taking position from him.

Trackhouse Racing and Richard Childress Racing have appealed the penalties, but 23XI withdrew its appeal while denying it manipulated the race for Bell. The appeal decisions could come late Thursday.

And then there's just the scrutiny over NASCAR officiating in general.

NASCAR for the entire playoffs has flip-flopped on its damaged vehicle policy, which was completely botched during the playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Confusion over the DVP rule began early in the playoffs when Blaney and Josh Berry were in first-lap incidents and although the damage appeared minimal, the way the DVP rule had been previously officiated, both were deemed out of the race and ineligible to be towed to the pit stall because they were unable to continue after contact.

But at Talladega, after a 28-car crash brought out the red flag, NASCAR struggled to control the cleanup. Numerous damaged cars were stranded with flat tires and then-playoff contenders Chase Elliott and Briscoe were towed back to their stalls to allow for repairs.

Under previous implementation of the rule, the cars should have been ruled out of the race because they had four flat tires and were not able to drive back to pit road.

Drivers were incensed over the change in officiating. NASCAR officials later told teams they'll operate the DVP policy the rest of the playoffs the way they did at Talladega.

"The DVP policy could spill into the live event," NBC analyst Steve Letarte said. "So when it affects on-track clearly to us, we have to cover that, that's our job. But there's no chance I'm going to pull an off-track story and connect it to an on-track performance. I think it's a slap in the face to whatever teams wins the championship trophy."