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 Cup Championship 4 field will be set Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.
Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick have secured spots in the title race. That leaves six drivers to vie for the final two spots.
Here is a look at the good news and bad news for Cup teams ahead of the Martinsville playoff race (2 p.m. ET Sunday on NBC).
Jemele Hill, a former ESPN pundit who is currently a contributing writer for The Atlantic, blasted former NASCAR star Danica Patrick over voting for Donald Trump for president.
Patrick revealed in a post on X she had voted for the first time in her life and made her decision to cast her vote for the former president as he and Ohio Sen. JD Vance run against Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for the White House.
“I made a rule for myself that if I didn’t vote I could not have an opinion about the outcome, because I didn’t earn that right,” Patrick shared on social media. “Not this time. I voted for (Trump) and I can’t wait to have him make America great again!”
