NASCAR has penalized the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota of Bubba Wallace, the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Austin Dillon, and the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet of Ross Chastain, due to what the Series has deemed potential race manipulation after the review of Sunday’s radio communications of those teams during the Martinsville Cup race.

The penalties are the same for the all three drivers and teams across the board: A $100,000 for each of the three teams involved and an additional $100,000 for each of the drivers, the loss of 50 driver and owner points, and one-race suspensions for crew chiefs, spotters and key team executives.

A closer look at how the penalties impact each team

23XI Racing team executive Dave Rogers, No. 23 crew chief Bootie Barker, and spotter Freddie Kraft have all been suspended. The points penalty drops Wallace from 17th to 18th in the championship standings.

Trackhouse team executive Tony Lunders, No. 1 crew chief Phil Surgen, and spotter Brandon McReynolds have been suspended for the championship finale as well. Chastain’s points position does not change as he remains 19th. 

At RCR, team executive Keith Rodden, No. 3 crew chief Justin Alexander, and spotter Brandon Benesch have been suspended for one race. The loss of 50 points affects Dillon the most, dropping him from 28th to 33rd in the driver standings.

All three teams initially planned to appeal, but 23XI has since withdrawn their appeal. The team released the following statement: “After internal deliberations, 23XI has decided not to appeal NASCAR’s decision to penalize the No. 23 team. We disagree with the penalty ruling and strong believe we did not break any rules at Martinsville. It is our conclusion that it is in our best interests, and that those of our team members, partners, and fans to fully devote our personnel and resources this week toward the championship and not an appeal.”

What did they do? 

Now, these punishments come as a result of what happened in the closing laps of the Round of 8 elimination race. As the checkered flag approached at Martinsville, Christopher Bell was trapped a lap down unable to gain any positions. William Byron was near the front, but fading on old tires. Only one point separated them with Byron having the edge.

Dillon and Chastain formed a rolling roadblock of sorts behind Byron, running side-by-side and never truly attempting to pass him. More importantly, they prevented anyone else from challenging the No. 24. At one point, the No. 3 team openly asked if the No. 1 knew “the deal” before instructing Dillon’s crew chief to inform Chastain’s crew chief.

While this was happening, the Toyota of Wallace was about half-a-lap ahead of Bell. “God forbid if we don’t help a f****** JGR car,” he radioed to his team. As the situation grew more dire for Bell, Wallace abruptly slowed, reporting a possible tire issue despite later observations from his spotter that all of the tires were fully inflated. Wallace’s pace fluctuating wildly but he remained on the track. On the final lap, he dropped nearly three seconds off the pace and Bell caught him entering the final corner on the final lap.

Bell got the point he needed — he was in the Championship 4 — for 27 minutes before NASCAR penalized him for the accidental wall-ride that followed his pass on Wallace.

Reigning two-time world rally champion Kalle Rovanpera swapped a rally car for a Red Bull RB8 Formula 1 car in a test at the Red Bull Ring.

Suggestions the 15-time WRC rally winner could drive an F1 car emerged earlier this season while a picture posted on his Instagram of a visit to the Red Bull Racing workshop in Milton Keynes last month further fanned speculation.

To prepare for the outing, Rovanpera visited Red Bull Racing’s headquarters for a seat fitting before taking part in a session on the team’s simulator.

“We did the seat fitting for the car to check I have everything well in the cockpit for the test and then we did a morning session on the simulator trying different smaller category formula cars building up to the bigger ones. I was able to get a hang of the track and stuff,” Rovanpera told Motorsport.com prior to the event. 

“I’m still a race driver so I want to show my potential and try to do well.”

Last week, Rovanpera headed to the Austrian Grand Prix venue, where he made his single-seater debut – first driving Formula 4 and Formula Renault 3.5 machinery, before stepping up to an older-generation Red Bull F1 car. 

Kalle Rovanpera test in a Red Bull Formula 1 car at the Red Bull Ring 

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

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The Finn completed between 40 and 50 laps at the circuit where he raced in the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux series this year. 

“It was a great day, I got to drive three different formula cars. I got quite a few laps in and, of course, the F1 was something I had been looking forward to for a long time, so it was really cool to finally get to drive it. The day went well, and I was left with very good feelings,” said Rovanpera.

“The biggest differences between rally and F1 are obviously that a rally car moves a lot more from the body – F1 is a bit like a karting car, it doesn’t move much from its suspension, but it has an incredible amount of grip – and of course, F1 has a huge amount of downforce, which allows you to drive much faster in corners. It’s also physically quite different. 

“There’s a lot more lateral G-force, the car stops much more and turns more – it feels very different to the driver, there are a lot more G-forces and the car has an incredible amount of grip.

Kalle Rovanpera test in a Red Bull Formula 1 car at the Red Bull Ring 

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

“Indeed, the first time you sit in there, it feels quite different than in a rally car – you also sit in such a different position that it feels quite different – but it was really cool to get to feel it today.”

This year Rovanpera has expanded his motorsport horizons by venturing into circuit racing having opted to contest a partial World Rally Championship campaign for Toyota, ahead of a return to full-time competition next year.

Rovanpera’s circuit racing exploits have included a part campaign in the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux series, which has yielded three race wins. The Finn also contested a round of the Italian Carrera Cup series at Monza last month. 

The 24-year-old is also a regular on the drifting scene, performing all over the world, and has revealed ambitions to one day compete at the Le Mans 24 Hours World Endurance Championship event.

Kalle Rovanpera test in a Red Bull Formula 1 car at the Red Bull Ring 

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Rovanpera isn’t the first WRC star to pilot an F1 car, with 1995 champion Colin McRae and nine-time champion Sebastien Loeb famously enjoying outings. 

McRae piloted a 1996 Jordan F1 car at Silverstone as part of a car swap stunt that saw then-Jordan driver Martin Brundle drive McRae’s WRC Subaru Impreza. 

In 2007, Loeb drove a Renault F1 show car at the Paul Ricard Circuit before joining Red Bull at an F1 winter test in Barcelona 2008, where he set the eighth-fastest time driving a Red Bull RB4.

This year hasn’t quite gone as Ross Chastain had planned: He narrowly missed making the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs despite consistently good results. His first win of the season finally came in late September (outside of the regular season) at Kansas Speedway — and Chastain credits his fitness regimen for his consistency, despite being out of the running now for the championship.

“We just stay on the grind,” said Chastain in a recent interview. “I still show up Monday mornings at 7:00 AM and nothing changes. I can’t try any harder, and I can’t try any less.”

A still-working watermelon farmer turned NASCAR star, Chastain burst onto the professional racing scene in 2011, working his way up the ladder before eventually breaking out as the 2022 Cup Series championship runner-up. (And architect of the wall ride heard ’round the world.) His fitness routine has evolved as the years have rolled on, and it’s now become one of his main priorities.

“A decade ago, when I first got in, I didn’t do anything!” he laughed. “I just woke up when I wanted to, ate whatever I wanted to. I’d eat a salad randomly, grilled chicken randomly… but then I’d eat fried chicken tenders on my biscuits and gravy the next morning for breakfast. Nothing was intentional.”

The same went for the gym.

“I’d go two days in a row, then spend two weeks without going,” he said, chuckling.

That all changed in 2018 when he signed with Chip Ganassi Racing, which put him in touch with fitness coach Josh Wise—a former Cup Series driver, Ironman triathlete, and now a famed NASCAR workout guru. Six years later, Chastain is training for marathons himself (“I’ve had the Huntsville half marathon circled on my calendar for 13 months!”) and has embraced the grind.

“When I was a kid, if I had to run for soccer practice, I didn’t like it,” he said. “Now, if I drive home and my legs hurt, I think… ‘Heck yeah, that was a good day!’”

We caught up with the watermelon evangelist-turned-Cup driver to talk meditation, avoiding surgery with training, and stealing lunch inspiration from Daniel Suarez.

What’s a typical workout like for Ross Chastain?
Gosh… it’s a bit of everything! I start my days at GM’s tech center, where the Wise program has Dan Jansen as our strength coach. So 7:00 AM on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I’m there. Monday is an arm and upper day, Wednesday is a lower leg strength day, and Thursday is high-speed running or biking for speed and power at threshold. Tuesday is an easier day—I’ll either do a session with Scott Speed at Trackhouse Motorplex, where we kart, run, or bike out back, or I alternate weeks with our mindfulness coach.

What benefits does the mindfulness coach give you?
We’ll go for a jog. He talks, we’re thinking mindfulness, meditation-style. A lot of good conversation and positive energy. That one-hour time slot a week is super important now to me to truly disconnect from everything. And when we get done, the sky is bluer, the birds chirp louder. We joke about it, but it’s real.

Ross Chastain

Photo by: Netflix

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A lot of people look at racecar drivers and think: You just need to push your foot down on the pedal. They don’t quite see what fitness brings to the table. How has working out been such a game changer for you?
It’s about endurance in my mind. I used to run triple headers, and I realized back in 2013-14 that I was not holding up in the seat very well. Stuff just hurt. My shoulders, arm—I actually thought I had problems with my elbow and needed surgery, but once I met Josh, he said, “I think your muscles are just weak! You look fit, but you’re just not strong.”

So that’s where it changed in my mind. I didn’t need surgery for my elbow that always hurt—I could barely lift my right arm above my head! I attributed it to shifting at road courses, but I was actually just weak. So he set me on a plan to do that, and I had relief from that day-to-day pain, and I felt better in the cars and trucks.

It’s all about being as good at the end of the race as I am at the beginning.

You mentioned that your diet has also evolved, from no structure whatsoever to making conscious decisions. What do you focus on when it comes to what you eat?

On Sunday, before the race I’ll have plain chicken and rice. It’s something that [Daniel] Suarez turned me onto. I was doing big salads before that—like big, beautiful salads with fruits and nuts. Really good, and kept me feeling light. But in the Cup car, with fixed belts now, if I eat too much, that fixed belt would be really tight! So he turned me onto the chicken and rice. Before that, if I have time for breakfast, it’s oatmeal and a banana.

I really do love breakfast, but I intermittent fast from Monday to Friday, and my first meal isn’t until after my workout, which could be noon.

Does watermelon fit into your diet still?
Heck yeah, man. I buy them at the grocery store on my way home and as I slice it up, I’ll eat it right then. Other times, I blend it up and have that big pitcher thing—I just stick that into the fridge and pour it out. I also keep a lot of avocados, fresh fruit, blueberries, blackberries… it’s a constant rotation. I keep all that stuff because, well, I just love food!

How do you decompress after a race or a long day of training?
When I’m done with all this stuff—all the cycling, running, my routine—it sounds so silly to say out loud, but I just want to have a beer! I’m done, I want to reward myself. I told Busch [Ed note: one of Chastain’s sponsors] that I already drink your product and will keep doing so if you sponsor me or not.

I haven’t upped my consumption by any means [since the sponsorship], but now they send the beer to me, so I don’t have to go buy it!

Bryn Lucas hosts Ben Hunt and Kevin Turner on the Autosport YouTube Channel in a new weekly fan Q+A edition of the show.

There’s a discussion on the breaking news story of the day with Sauber announcing Formula 2 Championship Leader Gabriel Bortoleto will be joining the team, with both current drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu leaving at season’s end.

There are also more of your questions in the aftermath of the Brazilian Grand Prix, such as whether Lando Norris is World Champion material, how Lewis Hamilton will fare at Ferrari given his recent struggles on track, and whether Franco Colapinto will be picked up by RB for 2025.

#f1 #bortoleto #verstappen

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Nico Hulkenberg has revealed how the marshals at Turn 1 for the Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix were “partying” after illegally helping the Haas driver rejoin the race after an off.

The German spun out in difficult conditions at Interlagos and although he failed to reach the barriers at the first corner, he became beached on a crest in the run-off area, with his rear wheels in the air.

This led to the use of the virtual safety car – one which brought race-defining pit stops – but instead of Hulkenberg retiring, he was pushed off the ledge and continued.

But the use of outside assistance contravened F1 regulations and saw Hulkenberg disqualified – the first driver shown the black flag since the Canadian Grand Prix in 2007.

Recapping his race, Hulkenberg said: “I think it was going OK on the inters actually; I was in a train with Pierre [Gasly] and Fernando [Alonso] for a long time, before we pitted. So I think we were going OK – it wasn’t dreadful, but it wasn’t amazing either.

“Just after the pit stop, our race somehow… obviously it finished pretty quickly and it all went south from there.”

Nico Hulkenberg, Haas VF-24

Photo by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Images

On the incident that ultimately saw him disqualified, Hulkenberg explained: “They [the marshals] came out, they pushed me off and they were really happy with themselves.

“They were partying and pushing me on and saying, ‘come on, go, let’s go, this race isn’t finished’. In that moment, you don’t really think, you don’t care to be honest as well.

“You just continue and you deal with the consequences later.”

The race would further hinge on a red flag just laps after Hulkenberg had triggered the virtual safety car as a deluge of rain and Franco Colapinto’s crash under safety car conditions left race control with no alternative.

Having made it to the pits under the red flags before being told of his disqualification, Hulkenberg dealt with the worst of the weather and insisted: “Definitely amongst the toughest conditions that I’ve raced in.

“Incredibly low grip, a very, very narrow window, very hard to make no mistakes. It was very tough.”

Bob Pockrass

FOX NASCAR Insider

After Ryan Blaney won the NASCAR Cup Series title last year, his father had the idea to build a trophy case as a gift to his son.

His dad, a well-accomplished racer in his own right, still has the trophy so he can build the case, but …

“He hasn’t even started,” Blaney said. “And his excuse is, ‘I need to know if I build one or two?’

“Well, that’s a pretty good excuse.”

Dave Blaney might as well wait a few more days before getting started.

Ryan Blaney will try to become the first Cup driver to win back-to-back titles in the elimination playoff era (which started in 2014) as he battles Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano and William Byron for the 2024 Cup championship Sunday at Phoenix Raceway. The driver among those four who finishes the best in the 40-car field will end up as the champion.

“It’s something really hard to do any sport, to go back to back,” Blaney said.

“You have to perform two years in a row — you and your team have to do it and have perfect ends of the year. It’s really tough. We have a pretty unique opportunity to try to change that [stat], and hopefully we bring our best stuff and have a shot at it.”

The Team Penske driver believes he has had a better season than last year, but this year he has had seven races where he has failed to finish so his stats don’t show just how much speed his cars have had throughout the year.

“We’ve had an overall way better year than what we did last year, and maybe it hasn’t shown because I’ve gotten in a ton of wrecks this year,” Blaney said. “It’s no one’s doing. I feel like us as a group, we’re way stronger than where we were in 2023. … I look at last year, we kind of caught fire at a good time, right before the playoffs.

“This year, I feel like we’ve been fantastic all year and have still gotten better through the year.”

In that championship run a year ago, Blaney won at Martinsville, a week prior to Phoenix, giving him a boost of momentum into the championship race, where he placed second overall and first among the four finalists.

Blaney, who had never advanced to the Champ 4 until last year, once again goes into Phoenix having won at Martinsville — in even a little more dramatic fashion as this time he had to win to Martinsville for any chance to advance.

So just getting to the Champ 4 in back-to-back years is an accomplishment (only Blaney and Byron made the Champ 4 last year among the 2024 finalists).

Kevin Harvick pitches a NEW playoff format the NASCAR Cup Series

Now that he’s there, Blaney should feel as if he has a good shot. He has finished In the top 5 in six consecutive Phoenix races — and in the last eight Phoenix races, he has an average running position of 5.6.

“To do it back-to-back, to pretty much have the same group of guys that I had last year on the car — it just shows the strength of everybody working together and being a family together,” Blaney said about potentially accomplishing a feat that hasn’t been done since Jimmie Johnson won five consecutive titles from 2006-2010.

“This is such a strong group. We’ve done this two years in a row. It’s a huge feat, so it would definitely be a little bit more special.”

Logano, a teammate to Blaney at Team Penske, won titles in 2018 and 2022 and didn’t even make it to the Champ 4 round the following year. He knows just how difficult it is to repeat.

“The competitors are closer than ever,” Logano said. “There’s no clear advantage in the race teams anymore like there used to be, or not as much — when you think of the old car, you’d have maybe 12 cars that can win every weekend.

“Now you have 25 cars that can win any weekend. Maybe more. So that just puts more cars within the range of being able to win, making it harder to win. You don’t have the guys that are winning eight, nine, 10 races in a year anymore.”

Blaney has won three races this year. He probably feels it should have been at least four if not more as he lost some close finishes and then couldn’t hold off a hard-charging Reddick in the top lane at Homestead the week prior to Martinsville.

Having a championship already helped Blaney handle the disappointment of Homestead as far as having the confidence to bounce back and perform at a top level in a must-win situation.

“I had no one to be disappointed in other than myself,” Blaney said. “That was purely, 100 percent on me that I lost Miami making the wrong decision on the last lap of the race.”

Blaney hopes he has the wrong decisions out of his system and that he can make all the right ones Sunday.

If so, his dad will know that he can start building a bigger trophy case. Unless he feels should wait another year.

“That’d be over the line,” Blaney said with a laugh when asked about the trophy case. “Get the two done right now [if we win] and worry about the other one.”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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