“Easy with it. Take care of your tires here,” spotter Kevin Hamlin told Alex Bowman over the radio on the final lap at Charlotte. A strange message, considering Bowman was less than two miles from the checkered flag. Under normal circumstances, Bowman would be pushing hard to get every position he could before the race finished. But what looked like a routine call quickly turned into one of the most debated moments of the NASCAR playoffs.

Bowman’s decision to ease up, seemingly to avoid hurting fellow Chevrolet driver Ross Chastain’s playoff hopes, has reignited the age-old debate about manufacturer influence and “team orders” in a sport built on individual competition. And while fans and pundits lit up social media with claims of manipulation, Ryan Blaney isn’t shying away from giving

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