NASCAR issued penalties to Michael Waltrip Racing on Monday after MWR driver Clint Bowyer’s controversial spin in Saturday night’s race at Richmond.

The Richmond race was the last race before the Chase for the Sprint Cup, NASCAR’s playoffs, began. Ryan Newman was leading the race in the closing laps and needed to win to make the Chase. With seven laps to go Bowyer spun which caused the caution to come out. The caution set up events that caused Newman to lose the race and a spot in the Chase, while Bowyer’s teammate Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano made the Chase.

While investigating, NASCAR reviewed communication between Bowyer and his team that seemed to indicate that the spin was intentional. There was also additional evidence that suggested that MWR had Bowyer and Brian Vickers take a dive over the final laps so that Logano would knock Jeff Gordon out of Chase contention in order to help Truex, according to the Associated Press.

Bowyer has denied that the spin was intentional and that Truex was an unwitting participant. However NASCAR disagrees.

“Based upon our review of Saturday night’s race at Richmond, it is our determination that the MWR organization attempted to manipulate the outcome of the race” Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president of competition said, reports NASCAR.com. "As the sport’s sanctioning body, it is our responsibility to ensure there is a fair and level playing field for all of our competitors and this action today reflects our commitment to that.”

NASCAR.com reports that MWR had violated Section 12-4 of the rulebook, actions detrimental to stock car racing. MWR’s three Sprint Cup teams were docked 50 drive points and 50 owner’s points. The point penalties are assessed after the season’s 26th race, not after the seeding for the Chase, which means Truex drops to 17th in points and out of the Chase and Newman makes the Chase as a wild card. MWR was also fined $300,000 and Ty Norris, MWR Executive Vice President/General Manager was suspended indefinitely. The team’s three crew chiefs are on probation.

It’s hard to believe that a team would manipulate a race in the way that Bowyer and MWR did. It was unethical, unprofessional, and should never have happened. Hopefully MWR has learned their lesson and this won’t happen again by any team.