NASCAR has issued harsh penalties to Cole Custer and the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing team after the sanctioning body determined that Custer intentionally slowed down and held up other cars on the final lap of last weekend's playoff elimination race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. The move aided Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Chase Briscoe's charge to make the Round of 8.
The penalties come after NASCAR announced they would review Custer's actions following the race.
Custer has been fined $100,000 and docked 50 driver points, with his team also losing 50 owner points. Crew chief Mike Shiplett has been indefinitely suspended from NASCAR and also fined $100,000. The penalties were assessed under Sections 4.3.A, 4.4.C and 5.5 of the NASCAR rulebook, which pertain to the performance obligations of its members and strictly forbids competitors from artificially altering the finishing positions of an event.
While running ninth on the final lap, Custer appeared to change lanes and then slow down dramatically from several car lengths in front of Austin Dillon entering the backstretch chicane, a move that allowed Briscoe to pass both Dillon and Custer to eventually make the Round of 8 by just two points over 2021 Cup Series champion Kyle Larson.
Radio communications of Custer's team on the final lap revealed that as Custer went down the backstretch, he received an order to slow down from Shiplett under the pretense that he had a flat tire.
"Slow up, I think we got a flat tire. Check up, check up," Shiplett said.
Here's the No. 41 team's radio communication during the final lap at Charlotte. #RaceHub pic.twitter.com/lb9p8IbKoL
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) October 11, 2022
That directive ended up amounting to a smoking gun, as NASCAR senior VP of competition Scott Miller noted Tuesday that there was no way Shiplett could have seen Custer's car and determined it had a flat tire while facing away from it on pit road. Video and data from Custer's car also factored into NASCAR's ruling.
"The data was pretty telling, and then when we got to the audio... Obviously pretty telling as to what went on there," Miller told reporters."
More serious penalties -- including suspending Custer and removing Briscoe from the Round of 8 -- were considered. However, NASCAR elected not to strip Briscoe of his Round of 8 position under the rationale that he would have advanced in the playoffs with where he was running before Custer slowed down.
Entering the backstretch on the final lap, Briscoe had entered a tiebreaker with Larson for the final spot in the Round of 8, a tiebreaker which Briscoe would have won. Briscoe's team radio also did not have any discussion of team orders or anything "scandalous" in NASCAR's eyes.
Stewart-Haas Racing appealed the penalties to Custer's team, which was heard by the National Motorsports Appeals Panel on Oct. 27. The Appeals Panel upheld the penalty, but the team will now have the right to appeal the decision to the National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer in accordance with the NASCAR rule book.
The actions taken by Stewart-Haas Racing are the latest in a series of incidents concerning team orders and drivers taking direct actions on-track to help a team car make or advance through the playoffs.
The most infamous example came in the final race of the regular season at Richmond in 2013, when Clint Bowyer spun to bring out a late-race caution and Brian Vickers came to pit road at the order of his spotter to tank his position to help Michael Waltrip Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. make the playoffs. The incident resulted in Michael Waltrip Racing being fined $300,000 and all of its drivers being docked 50 points, effectively stripping Truex of his playoff spot (ironically, Scott Miller was the crew chief for Vickers during that incident)
Although that incident represents the most blatant and egregious example of manipulating a race on behalf of a teammate, the issue has not completely gone away.
Two years ago, Erik Jones was ordered by his team not to pass Denny Hamlin during a playoff elimination race at Martinsville, helping Hamlin advance to the Championship 4. NASCAR reviewed the incident, but it did not penalize Jones or Joe Gibbs Racing.
