Bowyer’s suspicious spin being investigated,
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — With one suspicious snap of the steering wheel, Clint Bowyer changed the outcome of a race and maybe the championship, too.
Accidental or intentional, his spin in the closing laps at Richmond International Raceway set in motion a chain of events that has shrouded the start of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship and raised many questions about the potential for a race team to manipulate pivotal moments of a race.
Now NASCAR is reviewing evidence to determine if Michael Waltrip Racing deliberately altered Saturday night’s race, potentially costing both Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon spots in the Chase, to benefit MWR driver Martin Truex Jr.
NASCAR President Mike Helton told The Associated Press before Sunday’s Truck Series race at Iowa that officials in the scoring tower did not immediately see anything to believe Bowyer’s spin with seven laps remaining at Richmond was suspicious. The spin came while Newman was leading and brought out the caution that set in motion a chain of events that cost Newman both the race and a berth in the 12-driver Chase field. He was battling Truex for the final spot.
“We didn’t see anything that indicated that anything like that was taking place. And it’s natural when everything was as close as it was between who was going to get in and not go in to scratch your heads and try to figure out and wonder why,” Helton said. “But we didn’t see anything initially [Saturday] night that indicated that, but certainly we’ll go back through all the video and everything to be sure, because we take the responsibility very serious to be sure that it’s — that everybody has had a fair chance.”
But an ESPN replay that included communication between Bowyer and his team implied the spin was deliberate. Bowyer was shown the video after the race and denied he spun intentionally, a claim he repeated throughout the post-race activities.
“We had a flat tire or something. It just snapped around,” Bowyer said, later adding, “I know it’s a lot of fun for you guys to write a lot of wacky things. Go ahead if you want to, get creative. But don’t look too much into it.”
In-car audio framed the situation as his crew goading him into spinning his car to bring out the yellow in an effort to prevent Newman from winning the race.
“Thirty- nine is going to win the race,” Bowyer was told over his radio.
“Is your arm starting to hurt?” crew chief Brian Pattie asked. After a pause, Pattie said, “I bet it’s hot in there. Itch it.” Bowyer’s car then spun. NASCAR did not have access to that footage until well after the race.
Also, it became apparent Sunday morning that Bowyer and teammate Brian Vickers further aided Truex by taking a dive over the final three laps.
When the race resumed with three laps to go, fourtime series champion Jeff Gordon was poised to claim the 10th spot in the Chase, and Joey Logano was ahead of Truex in position to claim the second wild-card.
But Bowyer and Vickers both made pit stops in the final three laps that allowed Logano to improve his finishing position and move ahead of Gordon to claim the 10th Chase berth. That bumped Gordon from contention and freed the wild card for Truex.