I agree on either expanding to 5 or cutting to 3 (no Bell OR Byron), since there’s precedent for making up the rules as they go along either way.

I guess you could say Byron has plausible deniability about the blocking — he was just driving the last 10 laps and holding on, though it’s obvious that Ross/Dillon/Brad/probably several others would have passed him with laps to spare if everyone went 100%.

And then the Bell thing… The wall-ride was stupid, knowing that Ross had done it there and it was banned afterwards. He knew he probably would get in trouble for that. Also, Bubba probably faked having a tire problem to let Bell catch up, which is a whole other case of manipulation. But I suppose neither would have happened if not for the Chevys blocking?

Tbh, I feel upset about the whole thing, and I think I take the side that neither Bell nor Byron should make it. And then you either do a Championship 3 (it’s not like you need even numbers anyway, it’s not a bracket) or have Larson (next highest in standings) leapfrog them both. Either way, it was a really sad ending to what was otherwise a terrific race and a great drive by Blaney.