23XI makes surprising decision on Bubba Wallace, NASCAR penalty appeal

In a surprising twist, 23XI has announced that it will not appeal the NASCAR penalty assessed to Bubba Wallace and his crew stemming from a violation of the organization’s code of conduct at Martinsville.

23XI announced the decision in a tweet on Wednesday afternoon.

“After internal deliberations, 23XI has decided not to appeal NASCAR’s decision to penalize the No. 23 team,” the statement from 23XI read. “We disagree with the penalty ruling and strongly believe we did not break any rules at Martinsville.

“It is our conclusion that it is in our best interests, and those of our team members, partners and fans to fully devote our personnel and resources this week toward the championship and not an appeal.”

Wallace and 23XI were one of three teams penalized by NASCAR for violating the code of conduct during the race at Martinsville. Though specifics were not provided on the exact nature of the violation, the final bit of racing on the evening was in question.

Tensions were high in the final lap as William Byron battled to stay in front of Christopher Bell on points. Bell had to make up ground to pull level and thus find a way through to the Championship 4.

Bell got a remarkably easy pass on Wallace in the final stretch, one that saw Wallace decelerate considerably. Both Toyota drivers, the pass at least had the appearance of race manipulation. For his part, Wallace said he felt that he had a tire going down, thus the reason for slowing down.

That wasn’t the only infraction, though.

A pair of Chevrolets, driven by Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain, were also assessed a penalty for violating the code of conduct. Those two cars appeared to block the track for Byron (also a Chevrolet driver), preventing him from losing further ground and thus ceding points to Bell.

Ultimately Bell was penalized for a safety violation for riding the wall, ending his day without a pass through to the Championship 4.

After the fact, of course, NASCAR penalized the three teams. Each driver saw his crew chief and spotter, as well as one team executive, suspended. They were also fined $100,000 and docked 50 driver points.

Richard Childress Racing and Trackhouse Racing both planned to file an appeal of the penalties.