Christopher Bell crew chief Adam Stevens takes issue with Austin Dillon, Ross Chastain block at Martinsville

The finish at Martinsville on Sunday was controversial from multiple angles, not the least of which seemed to be a little teamwork between the Chevrolets on the track.

With William Byron looking to hold onto a narrow lead over Christopher Bell in the points for the final spot in the Championship 4, the fellow Chevrolets of Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain appeared to block up the track to keep anyone from catching Byron in the final lap.

Bell’s crew chief, Adam Stevens, commented on it to The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck after the race.

“I think that’s a bad look, but bad looks aren’t gonna put me in the Championship 4, apparently,” Stevens said. “Guess they wanted a Chevy in there. They got one.”

The Martinsville radio communications seemed to lend credence to the idea that the Chevrolets were working together.

Dillon’s team talked about “knowing the deal,” and then someone asked, “Does the 1 crew chief know the deal?”

But whether NASCAR will make any sort of enforcement move after Martinsville remains to be seen. NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer answered questions after the race but mostly deflected when asked about any type of teaming or collusion.

And for what it’s worth, those concerns weren’t just limited to Byron.

Bell, a Toyota driver, appeared to get a remarkably easy pass on Bubba Wallace (also a Toyota driver) on the final lap, as Wallace slowed down considerably. Wallace said after the race that he felt he had a tire going down.

Still, it raised concerns. Those concerns just weren’t top of mind for NASCAR on Sunday evening at Martinsville.

“The situations going on with 23 and the cars behind the 24 really have no bearing at this time,” Sawyer said. “We’ll look at those at a later time. When you really just dissect exactly what happened, look at the situation with the 20 hitting up against the fence and riding the fence, we clearly stated in our statement after Ross (Chastain) did that would not be accepted.”

So Bell was penalized for a safety violation at Martinsville, knocking him out of the points tie with Byron and sending Byron through to the Championship 4.