In a stunning move, NASCAR has revoked Austin Dillon‘s automatic berth into the 16-driver NASCAR Cup Series playoff field for his moves on the final lap Sunday at Richmond Raceway.
Dillon won the race following a last-lap incident where he turned Joey Logano and then hooked Denny Hamlin to take the checkered flag and what he thought was an automatic playoff berth that goes with a regular-season win.
NASCAR will not strip Dillon of the win, but it won’t allow him to use the win for an automatic playoff berth. Dillon was also docked 25 points in the standings and his spotter, Brandon Benesch, was suspended for three races.
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NASCAR rules allow for that decision as the playoff eligibility requirements state: “Race finishes must be unencumbered by violation(s) of the NASCAR Rules or other action(s) detrimental to stock car auto racing or NASCAR as determined in the sole discretion of NASCAR.”
NASCAR also issued a $50,000 fine to Logano for smoking his tires as he drove by Dillon’s crew and family on pit road following the race. Logano said he will not appeal the fine.
RCR will appeal the penalty, and any decision by NASCAR’s appeals panel would be made before the regular-season finale Sept. 1 at Darlington.
“Richard Childress Racing is very disappointed in NASCAR’s penalty against the No. 3 team,” the team said in a statement. “We do not agree with the decision that was made and plan to appeal.”
NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer, choosing his words carefully and not going into specifics in order to keep anything he said from being used against NASCAR in the appeals process, said the totality of Dillon’s move from Turn 3 to the finish resulted in the penalty.
“The No. 1 thing is that we want to make sure that we are protecting the integrity of our playoffs as well as our championship when we get to [the final race at] Phoenix,” Sawyer said.
“And we want to make sure that our competitors understand — we want them to make all the decisions, we want them to be able to race hard, that’s what our sport has been about for 75 plus years — but we also want them to understand, and I believe that each and every one of them understands, that this crossed the line.”
Sawyer acknowledged that they will look at ways to make these decisions quicker than three days after the race.
“We want to make sure the most important thing in these decisions is to get it right, and to make a split-second decision and it be wrong, that would be bad on our part,” Sawyer said.
Sawyer did say that they considered stripping the win from Dillon but weren’t sure what rule to cite.
“As we look through the rule book, there’s not, at the moment, really a mechanism in the rule book that gives us that option,” he said.
Assuming he doesn’t win any appeals, the Richard Childress Racing driver, who is 26th in the series standings and has no chance to make the playoffs on points, will have to win one of the final three races — Michigan, Daytona and Darlington remain on the regular-season schedule — to earn a spot in the playoff field.
Dillon was cruising to the victory — a victory that would turn around a miserable season where he sat 32nd in the standings after 22 of the 26 regular-season races — when a caution came out with two laps remaining, setting up an overtime restart.
Logano got a good jump on the restart and had enough of an advantage that he thought he would be able to hold off Dillon, who went into Turn 3 and turned Logano. Hamlin ducked to the inside and Dillon hooked him in the right rear.
Dillon indicated he was just flooring his throttle and didn’t intend to turn Hamlin.
FINAL LAPS: Austin Dillon secures checkered flag in overtime at Cook Out 400
Sawyer said Sunday night that the sanctioning body would look at data of the cars’ throttle, steering and braking info and dive into team communications to determine if Dillon did anything against NASCAR’s rules on aggressive driving.
Dillon spotter Benesch did say “wreck him” a couple of times in the final lap, although Dillon said he didn’t hear that — he was just reacting to the evolving situation.
“I was just trying to get to him,” Dillon said about Logano. “I went into Turn 3 in fifth gear and drove in, tried to get him loose, got him up the track. I got the car downshifted, and the car actually turned pretty good when I did that.
“When I was coming back left, the 11 [of Hamlin] was coming. That was just kind of a reaction. … I wasn’t lifting at that point because I was more looking at where the 22 [of Logano] was. When the 11 came across, it was just reaction.”
NASCAR typically allows drivers to trade paint but blatantly wrecking someone for position can — but not always — result in a being held one or more laps. When it is done in retaliation, it is typically when it rises to the level of a suspension.
Hamlin and Logano both said that Dillon should be penalized for the move.
“He can come from five car lengths back and completely wreck someone and then wreck another one to the line — and we’re going to call that racing?” Logano said.
A frustrated Joey Logano discussed Austin Dillon’s move in overtime and also spoke about Dillon as a driver
It was the hook of Hamlin, though, that likely caught NASCAR’s ire. NASCAR has penalized drivers for such a move, but typically those are done in retaliation.
“He right-rear hooked me. … There was a two-lap penalty for Layne Riggs that spun somebody out in a truck race [earlier this year], but we’re going to say that that’s fine?” Hamlin said.
With Dillon no longer eligible for the automatic berth, there are four playoff spots up for grabs and at least one will go to a driver who doesn’t win during the regular season. Because Chris Buescher and Ross Chastain were tied in points for the fourth spot among winless drivers, the bubble margins have not changed.
Martin Truex Jr. remains 78 points ahead of the cutoff while Ty Gibbs is 18 points up and Bubba Wallace is three points ahead. Buescher and Chastain are now tied for the last spot with the next-closest driver Chase Briscoe at 99 points behind them.
Full coverage of Richmond fallout:
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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