NASCAR Penalizes Austin Dillon For Wrecking Joey Logano And Denny Hamlin At Richmond, Revokes Playoff Spot
Austin Dillon is out of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs again after being slapped with penalties for the way he won the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway.
Dillon wrecked Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin on the last lap to claim his first win of the season and what he thought was a spot in the post-season.
Dillon gets to keep the win, but it won’t count toward playoffs eligibility and he also lost all the playoff points earned along with 25 driver and owner points.
“As we looked at it, 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 Phoenix,” Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, said on a media call Wednesday.
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“We want to make sure that our competitors understand that 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 said that the entirety of the incident was taken into account for the penalties and that they weren’t able to find a way to justify taking away the win itself.
“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.
NASCAR also said Dillon’s spotter, Brandon Beseech, was overheard on the radio saying “wreck him” and suspended him for three races.
Dillon’s team Richard Childress Racing, said it would appeal.
“Richard Childress Racing is very disappointed in NASCAR’s penalty against the No. 3 team. We do not agree with the decision that was made and plan to appeal,” it said in a social media post.
Joey Logano was also fined $50,000 for stopping in front of Dillon’s pit stall after the race and doing a burnout as people gathered in pit lane.
Dillon is now listed 31st in the season standings with no stage wins.
