A stunning reversal for this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series event forced online sportsbooks to stick to their rules, leaving some bettors out of luck but others the beneficiaries of a wild ride.
Denny Hamlin’s Toyota crossed the finish line first on Sunday during the race at Pocono Raceway. At that point, bettors holding No. 11 outright tickets probably breathed a sigh of relief and started counting their newly-won money in their heads.
But, a few hours later, the cars of Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch, who had finished second, had been disqualified. The cause, according to NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran, boiled down to “some material that was somewhere that it shouldn’t have been” in the noses of the vehicles, which could have affected the aerodynamics.
Following the disqualifications to the Nos. 11 and 18 cars, NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran addressed reporters in the Pocono Media Center. pic.twitter.com/quADyCtaM1
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 25, 2022
It was a historically crazy outcome. According to media reports, it looked to be the first time the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing had disqualified the winner of a Cup race since 1960.
Moreover, the No. 9 Chevrolet of Chase Elliott, who never led a lap during the race, was now the official victor after initially finishing third. The DQ of Busch and Hamlin also bumped them to the back of the official results sheet, moving up other drivers into the top three, top five, and top ten positions, among other bettable outcomes.
In the wake of such a rare decision, bookmakers stuck to their house rules, tapping the signs explaining how bettors will or won’t be paid in the event of certain things happening — including a historic disqualification.
Rules are rules
A spokesperson for DraftKings told Covers on Monday they will be paying the new winners, in addition to the first-declared winners. The sportsbook's rules state that all NASCAR markets will first be settled based on the unofficial results, and then, if there are changes following the post-race inspections, previous winners will stand but new winners will be graded as such.
Phill Gray, head of trading operations at Sports Interaction, noted their rules say bets are settled according to the official results on race day and that they are not subject to any changes afterward. As a result, SIA only paid out winners once, and those winning tickets were based on the official results at Pocono, in which Chase Elliott was the winner of the race.
Caesars Sportsbook always waits for the post-race inspection before grading a bet, spokesperson Brad Harwood said in an email. The bookmaker settled all wagers according to the official order of finish, which would start with Elliott as the winner.
However, Elliott bettors at BetMGM were not so lucky. BetMGM's rules say all wagers will be settled based on the unofficial results, and that any changes made after NASCAR sends out those results will not be recognized. This meant that, in BetMGM’s eyes, the outright winner of the race was Hamlin, and bettors were paid accordingly.
It was a similar result for FanDuel bettors. Under the bookmaker's rules, it is Hamlin who won and whose bettors will be paid, not Elliott.
“Our house rules state that bets are settled on the result of the podium presentation regardless of any subsequent disqualifications,” FanDuel spokesperson Kevin Hennessy said in an email.
The times they have a-changed
The outcome wouldn’t have been as big a problem for gamblers back in 1960, because there was not the same kind of legal sports betting industry at the time. Now, though, there is some form of legal wagering live in 30 states, plus a robust market for online sports betting in Ontario, Canada's most populous province.
NASCAR has also been leaning into legal sports betting as a way to drum up interest in the sport. A controversial result may not be an ideal situation for the organization, although it will surely generate publicity — and perhaps drive traffic to the house rules section of a sportsbook’s website.
The DQs follow some tweaks to the NASCAR rulebook as well, including tougher post-race inspection penalties that have been in place since 2019. There is a new car for the 2022 season too, forcing drivers and teams to adapt to a new setup.
According to NASCAR.com, there have been three disqualified winners since 2019, although they were in lower-level races, not the Cup Series.
NASCAR's changes have prompted changes at sportsbooks. Duane Colucci, race and sportsbook manager at the Rampart Casino in Las Vegas, said during an interview on VSiN that they now have a 24-hour “cool-out” period for NASCAR races. Until that period ends, the book will not grade any bets.
“So we will grade Chase Elliott as the winner because we have this 24-hour period now because of so many cars that were failing inspection,” Colucci said. “We used to grade it as soon as they crossed the finish line, but, over the last couple of years, because of the cars and the suspensions and different enhancements and disqualifications, we had to adjust that.”
How did @rampartcasino handle the betting controversy surrounding disqualifications of the top 2 finishers in Sunday’s @NASCAR race? @nybookieduane breaks it down for @GUnit_81 on #TheLookahead! pic.twitter.com/S9ilKPLuFT
— VSiN (@VSiNLive) July 25, 2022
There was a possibility that the official outcome of Sunday's race could be changed again if there was a successful appeal of the Busch and Hamlin disqualifications. However, NASCAR announced on Monday that Joe Gibbs Racing will not appeal the penalty, leaving Elliott as the official winner of the M&M’s Fan Appreciation 400 at Pocono.
Even if the decision was overturned, bettors may not have necessarily seen any change in the outcome of their bets.
The rules at DraftKings, for example, state that "any subsequent inquiries/disqualifications after the official post-race inspection will not affect settlement."
Likewise, at BetMGM, the rules say that "any changes to the finishing order that occurs based on appeals, penalties or scoring malfunctions after the race has concluded, will not be recognized."
In sports betting, then, as can be the case in other walks of life, it can all come down to the fine print.
This story has been updated from its original version to include the news that the disqualifications will not be appealed.
