NASCAR fans and the online sports betting community united on social media Tuesday to help address an issue sparked by a scoring error from NASCAR after Sunday night’s race at Nashville Superspeedway.
In the wild finish of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway, NASCAR had a not-so-rare mix-up in the unofficial finishing order of the race.
Initially, the sport scored Chase Elliott in fifth, Tyler Reddick in sixth, and Shane van Gisbergen in seventh, in a narrow finish that resulted in a major wreck.
But, shortly after the race, officials adjusted the results to note that SVG finished fifth, scoring his first-ever top five on an oval in the NASCAR Cup Series, while Elliott actually came home in seventh.
While this was a moment to celebrate for Trackhouse Racing and fans of the New Zealander, bettors who took SVG in the top five on the betting platform FanDuel were not initially paid for the result.
One bettor went viral when they shared a message on social media from FanDuel that stated their policy is that “Bets will be settled on the result at the time of the podium presentation regardless of any subsequent disqualifications,” further adding that van Gisbergen “initially placed 7th, he did not place top 5.”
Essentially, in their opinion, the bet was settled at the immediate conclusion of the race, in which van Gisbergen was scored in 7th.
While this is technically true by the unofficial results at the line, the finishing order was adjusted by the time NASCAR released the official results at 12:57 AM ET.
Adding to the frustration, another user noted that other sportsbooks, like BetMGM, had already implemented the adjustment and sent a notification.
Nonetheless, the issues with FanDuel carried into Tuesday night, when the same user posted a follow-up in which a member of FanDuel’s Accounts Team responded, claiming again that bets are settled “at the time of the podium presentation” and that Elliott was “subsequently disqualified following the race.”
Of course, the NASCAR community was quick to point out two issues with this account of the finish, with many tagging FanDuel in response.
The first point taken to heart by the community is that NASCAR does not have a “podium presentation,” and that the annoyance of outside terminology is used when talking about NASCAR.
But the second issue the community saw in the response was much more glaring. That’s because NASCAR did not disqualify Elliott; instead, officials adjusted his finishing position to seventh.
The uproar from this response to the bettor grew to the point that it expanded beyond NASCAR circles into the broader sports betting community, as both the initial post and the follow-up accrued over 400k views on X.
Fortunately, late Tuesday night, the same user who started this discussion shared that after this backlash, FanDuel had settled up with bettors, saying, “Thanks to everyone in the #nascar community who helped bring attention to this.”
While the controversy was far from the first in online sports communities, those in the NASCAR world were glad to see the community come together to help their fellow fans.
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