MOORESVILLE, N.C.: For the second time in six days, NASCAR levied hefty fines for Stewart-Haas Racing, but this time the penalties were handed down to driver Cole Custer and his crew chief Mike Shiplett for their actions during the final lap of Sunday’s Round of 12 cutoff Bank of America ROVAL 400 race at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Road Course.
NASCAR fined Custer $100,00 and docked him 50 Cup Series driver points.
Crew chief Shiplett was indefinitely suspended and also fined $100,000. The No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing team was also docked 50 Cup owner points for the alleged violation.
NASCAR said Custer and his team violated several sections of the Rule Book, including Section 5.5 of the Cup Rule Book and failing to race at 100% of their ability ”with the goal of achieving the best possible finishing position in the Event.”
That section also states that “Any Competitor(s) who takes action with the intent to Artificially Alter the finishing positions of the Event or encourages, persuades, or induces others to Artificially Alter the finishing positions of the Event shall be subject to a penalty from NASCAR.
“Artificially Alter” shall be defined as actions by any Competitor(s) that show or suggest that the Competitor(s) did not race at 100% of their ability for the purpose of changing finishing positions in the Event, in NASCAR’s sole discretion.
Stewart-Haas Racing has said they will appeal Tuesday afternoon’s penalties.
On the final lap of Sunday’s Cup race, Custer appeared to dramatically slow on the backstretch allowing Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Chase Briscoe to pass him and the No. 3 of Austin Dillon with an inside pass at the backstretch chicane.
The abrupt reduction of speed by Custer gained Briscoe two positions on the track and padded his Playoff cushion by two against Kyle Larson who he was fighting for the eighth and final spot in the Playoff standings.
Before the pass, Briscoe held the final transfer spot via a tiebreak over Larson with a pass on Erik Jones heading onto the backstretch.
Briscoe bested Larson by two points for the final transfer spot to the Round of 8. Without the pass on Dillon and Custer, Briscoe would still have edged Larson for the transfer spot as the spring Phoenix winner held the tiebreaker in the three-race Round of 12.
Shortly after the race, NASCAR announced it would review data, video and radio transmissions from the No. 41 car to determine if any penalties would be warranted.
NASCAR, however, stated at the time that any decision would not impact the Round of 8 grid.
During a short teleconference on Tuesday afternoon, NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller said the sanctioning body found evidence from data and radio transmissions from the No. 41 team that justified their penalties.
“The No. 41 (Custer) slowed abruptly on the back straightaway blocking the No. 3 (Dillon),” explained Miller.
“The 14 (Briscoe) went by the 41 and the 3. So obviously with all of the data that we have available to us now data coming off the car for brakes, you know, steering, throttle and all of the audio we dug into all of that and obviously found some things that we felt like we had to react to.”
Miller pointed to the radio transmission from the crew chief as the most damning evidence to the team.
“When we got to the audio and had the crew chief telling the driver that, ‘I think you got a flat checkup, checkup, checkup’ when he couldn’t even see the car or have any idea whatsoever that the car might have a flat pretty obviously pretty telling as to what went on there,” Miller added.
NASCAR insisted that it was clear that Custer did not have a flat, utilizing the tools available to them, including in-car videos and replays to confirm.
“Nothing contradicted the fact that that was done deliberately by those individuals,” he continued. “So, we were certainly forced to react.
“Today, we can’t have teams manipulating the finishing order.”
Miller also noted that had Custer’s actions altered the Playoff field, the penalties would have been more severe, including the potential of removing Briscoe. However, Custer’s act had no bearing.
“Had this been the determining factor in the No. 14 (Briscoe), making it into the Round of 8 or not — our reaction probably would’ve, well, certainly, would’ve been bigger,” Miller said.
“The 14 qualified for the Round of 8 without this. But had it not been the case and the 14 would’ve gotten into the Playoffs, we would’ve had to react in an even stronger fashion.”
NASCAR said they also reviewed the audio of Stewart-Haas Racing’s No. 14 team of Briscoe where they were easily able to clear them of any wrongdoing or involvement with Custer’s team.
“We definitely did spend a lot of time, listened to all the 14 car audio, and there was not a word during the race about teammates or anything on the 14 car radio throughout the race,” Miller explained.
“They were, concerned and keeping the driver up to speed, how the points were shaking out at different times during the race.
“The only chatter they had on their radio was about kind of where they were points-wise with the current running order, but nothing that we could even remotely point to as being any kind of a scandalous conversation on the radio.”
Miller said the thought had been given to also suspend Custer from Cup Series competition but felt like his actions did not warrant a suspension given it didn’t follow prior precedent.
The penultimate Round of 8 begins Sunday afternoon with the South Point 400 at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
