NASCAR ultimately determined that Michael Waltrip Racing, Penske Racing, and Front Row Motorsports were involved in two separate, but intertwined, incidents, first by Clint Bowyer intentionally causing a caution with less than ten laps remaining in the race, and on the ensuing restart, having Brian Vickers pit after a restart from caution so that Martin Truex Jr. would clinch a Wildcard berth over Ryan Newman, and the second was collusion where Penske's Joey Logano earned the final guaranteed berth over Jeff Gordon after passing Front Row's David Gilliland.

In order to guarantee a Chase position, Newman needed to either win the race, or be five points ahead of Truex and not have Joey Logano or Greg Biffle fall out of the top ten (as if either Logano or Biffle dropped out of the top ten at the end of the race, the other Wild Card spot would go to one of them).

From the various angles captured of the spin, it initially appeared that Bowyer had either been tapped from behind by Dale Earnhardt Jr. or he had cut a right front tire.

A slow pit stop for Newman dropped him to third, behind Carl Edwards, Paul Menard, with Kurt Busch starting next to him in 4th.

However, Edwards was not penalized (as had happened to Jimmie Johnson at Dover in June) as NASCAR ruled that Menard had spun his tires and was slow getting up to speed.

Another suspicious conversation was revealed between Vickers and his spotter, team general manager and vice president Ty Norris, where Norris ordered a completely oblivious Vickers to make a green-flag pit stop after the restart on lap 398 in order to give Truex another position to tie Newman in points.

As this penalty was applied before the reset for the Chase, it effectively knocked Truex out of the Wildcard spot in favor of Newman.

The 50-point penalty dropped Truex to 17th in points, removing him from eligibility for a wild-card position, and giving his spot to Newman.

While NASCAR could not find any conclusive evidence that Bowyer had deliberately spun out, it did determine that Vickers' pit on Norris' orders was illegal.

Logano had to stay in the top ten in order to give Truex a wild card if Newman did not win.

Penske and Front Row were considered technical partners, as they both used Ford cars and Roush Fenway Racing powertrains.

[7] After a second inquiry, NASCAR placed both Penske and Front Row on probation until December 31, and forced all teams to attend a Saturday afternoon meeting at the 2013 GEICO 400 in Chicagoland, regarding ethics in light of the two related match fixing incidents.

24 full-time following Jeff Gordon's retirement from racing, with Axalta moving over to sponsor Earnhardt from 2016 to 2017 and then Alex Bowman and William Byron, starting in 2018; Elliott would eventually win his first Cup Series title (with NAPA sponsorship) in 2020.

The record fine, $300,000, was broken in 2023, when all four Hendrick Motorsports cars were discovered to have irregularities on the louvers during the pre-race inspection for the 2023 United Rentals Work United 500 (along with Justin Haley's, belonging to Kaulig Racing); Hendrick Motorsports were fined $400,000 for the irregularities ($100,000 per car).