No matter what the sport, it’s ideal for referees and umpires to not get overly involved in a playoff game and let the players play unless deemed absolutely necessary. Sometimes it cannot be avoided, such as when Kevin Harvick’s win in the 2018 fall race at Texas and he had to race his way in the following week at Phoenix following a disqualification for an illegally modified spoiler.
In the aftermath of the first two races of the Round of 8, NASCAR’s decision to rescind Ryan Blaney’s disqualification penalty after Las Vegas has become a major factor in the upcoming cutoff at Martinsville. When the penalty was first handed down, Blaney was put into a position of having to win to advance to the Championship Four. It honestly would’ve been better perception-wise for Blaney to win on Sunday to end the conversation about NASCAR’s inspection process. Instead, because of the rescinded penalty, Blaney is now ten points above the cutoff line on Tyler Reddick instead of being 28 points below it. It’s problematic that something outside of both Blaney and Reddick’s control might be the determining factor of who advances.
At the end of the day, the issue was ultimately with NASCAR’s post-race inspection in Blaney’s case but it can’t be ignored that this isn’t the first time this year a major penalty has been rescinded. The one hundred point and ten playoff point penalty handed down to Hendrick Motorsports in mid-March was overturned by the Appeals Board. Once again, this one penalty has had major ramifications because of the drivers that were involved: Kyle Larson and William Byron, who are both on their way to the Championship Four. Who knows if either driver even gets into the playoffs if the penalty stood and how far they would’ve advanced if they had done so.
The moral of the story is that while Blaney, Larson, and Byron have more than deserved to be where they are based on their performance, many are going to wonder how much things would’ve changed if these significant penalties were enforced. While NASCAR has wanted to crack down on illegal changes to ensure the integrity of the new Next Gen car, it’s important to make sure the penalties are ironclad.
If NASCAR and their inspection team intend to inject themselves into the picture of the playoffs, it is imperative that the process and evidence is bulletproof and is absolutely necessary.
