After late-race radio communications became a hot topic at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, NASCAR will meet with teams before the Round of 8 to stress that manipulation won’t be tolerated.
“At a certain point during this week, we will just remind teams, ‘Let’s not put yourselves or ourselves in jeopardy here,’ ” NASCAR managing director of communications Mike Forde said during the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast. “Fans should be coming to the race track and expecting a straight-up race where each position is fought for as hard as possible, especially at the end of a race.
“If we do see something or hear something we don’t like, we are going to step in, which we’ve have done now several times. So we are aware, and if we hear something, we will certainly react if necessary.”
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Forde said NASCAR took no action after reviewing the late-race radio transmissions of Alex Bowman and Cole Custer because their team communications drew attention on social media. Custer was racing behind Joey Logano, who captured the last berth in the Round of 8, and Bowman was near Chastain.
“The beauty of social media in this era is we have thousands of officials sitting at home and reviewing HBO Max cameras, and listening to radio transmissions,” Forde said. “So it’s very, very difficult for anything to slip by. So we did review (the transmissions of Bowman and Custer), and nothing rose to the level of a penalty.”
— NASCAR —