"One team sued NASCAR, the other didn’t" - Fans accuse NASCAR of bias after penalizing Bubba Wallace but ignoring HMS' William Byron at Charlotte

Fans voiced their displeasure via social media in the aftermath of NASCAR handing down a penalty to Bubba Wallace and not doing the same to William Byron in Sunday's Cup Series race at the Charlotte Roval. Some are angry as they believe NASCAR penalized the driver of the #23 23XI Racing Toyota because his team is involved in a lawsuit with the governing body.

In the early laps of stage one in Sunday's race, Wallace was penalized by NASCAR for short-cutting the frontstretch chicane. Because of this, the Alabama native had to come to a complete stop on the racetrack as a penalty. The 31-year-old then rejoined the race after losing multiple spots.

William Byron, driver of the #24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, committed the same violation, as pointed out by many on social media, but wasn't penalized.

This sparked many interesting comments from fans on X. One user, who replied to racing insider Jeff Gluck asking why Wallace was penalized but Byron wasn't, insinuated that the former was penalized because of the legal battle his race team is in with NASCAR.

"One team sued NASCAR, the other didn’t."

"Which one has a pending lawsuit?" another wrote.

23XI Racing, co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin, filed a lawsuit against NASCAR and CEO Jim France, accusing them of monopolization. The suit claims NASCAR has disregarded the well-being of the race teams and is only looking out for itself.

Some fans suggested NASCAR showed favoritism towards Byron, this year's Daytona 500 champion, for driving for Hendrick Motorsports. One fan wrote:

"Hendrick bias why are we acting surprised."

"Hendrick bias is real because Byron did the same thing but no penalty," wrote another.

"Hendrick bias? Playoff bias? Same action, different result," another fan wrote.

Racing insider and NASCAR on FOX journalist Bob Pockrass said via X that he spoke to a NASCAR spokesman for clarification on why Byron wasn't penalized. He wrote:

"According to NASCAR spokesman Byron wasn't penalized because he had two tires still in the red-and-white portion."

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Bubba Wallace finished ninth in Sunday's NASCAR Bank of America ROVAL 400

While the short-cutting the chicane penalty plagued Bubba Wallace early, he managed to wheel his #23 Leidos machine to a ninth-place finish at the Charlotte Roval for his best finish on a road course this season. Wallace also managed to accumulate six stage points after a fifth place effort in stage two.

Unaffected by any penalties, William Byron managed to finish third in Sunday's race and already had a guaranteed spot in the upcoming Round of 8 by virtue of points. Byron joins Sunday's winner Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, and Tyler Reddick in the next round of the playoffs.

Wallace, meanwhile, failed to make the initial 16-driver playoff field this season. He's yet to win this year as well, with his last victory dating back to October of 2022 at Kansas.