A NASCAR Official has confirmed that NASCAR will have “some discussions” with Trackhouse Racing after their two playoff drivers’ odd post-race actions this past weekend at WWT Raceway.
Following Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at WWT Raceway in Illinois, Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman pointed out that the two Trackhouse Racing entries in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs drove through the grass entering pit road.
Per the onboard car camera of Bowman, as the cars headed to pit road during the cool-down lap, Shane van Gisbergen dove into the backstretch grass on both the left side of his car and the right side of the pit road. In front of SVG, his Trackhouse teammate Ross Chastain did so for all four tires by cutting the entry to pit road short.
While this may seem harmless, speculation as to why the two drivers did this odd action began immediately. While some went as far as to suggest it was an attempt to remove something from the underbody, others assumed the team was attempting to pick up missing weight from whatever would stick to the cars in the grass.
Still, during an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday Morning, NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran said officials will be speaking with the team about these strange actions.
“We’ll be having some discussions with Trackhouse management, as well as our crew chiefs, and we’ll be giving all teams some information regarding that this week. It certainly certainly caught our radar, and we have rules that could put the teams in a real bad spot when we see that.” — Brad Moran, Managing Director of the NASCAR Cup Series
These comments confirm that what the teams did was not only suspicious to NASCAR fans and Bowman, but to NASCAR. While Trackhouse could walk away with their hands clean, it is very likely that the potential penalties could be enough to keep any team from doing something like this again.
Despite all the uncertainty around this situation, one thing is clear: if Trackhouse attempted something to help their cars perform better, it did not work at Gateway.
While SVG had an above-average day on an oval, a pit road penalty set him back, with the No. 88 finishing 25th. His fellow Trackhouse playoff driver, Chastain, also had a lackluster day in Illinois, finishing 24th, and Daniel Suarez rounded out their effort in 35th after lap 61 contact with Chase Briscoe.
This week, the NASCAR Cup Series heads for its first elimination race of the 2025 playoffs. As of right now, despite his stellar effort collecting playoff points this season, Shane van Gisbergen sits below the cut line, while Chastain sits slightly more comfortably 19 points above the cut.
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