During the final lap of last weekend’s NASCAR Cook Out 400 at Richmond, Richard Childress Racing driver (and grandson of Childress) Austin Dillon unceremoniously dumped race leader Joey Logano, and hooked Denny Hamlin into the wall. All of this bash-em-up was done in an effort to come to the checkered flag first, which Dillon did. He was 32nd in points going into the race weekend, and needed to win a race in order to make the series playoffs. The move was a clear act of desperation for the RCR driver, who has gone winless since August 0f 2022.
In my personal race fan view of the crash, it was a real chickenshit way to win a race. NASCAR’s tradition of not revoking race wins, even over potentially dangerous behavior like this, brought it into reality. The culture within the team, with one crew member telling their driver to take the win “I don’t care how you do it” and the spotter shouting “Wreck him! Wreck him!,” are concerning, if not worthy of penalty on its own.
After deliberating what it would do for three days, NASCAR finally issued its ruling on Wednesday. The series likes to, as it were, let fans go home knowing who won. That’s a way of saying that it doesn’t revoke race victories. Dillon, however, was severely penalized for his actions. Richard Childress Racing has lost all eligibility for the team owners’ championship, which it wasn’t threatening to win anyway, but more importantly the team and Dillon himself, were docked 25 championship points, and Dillon’s win will not count toward postseason eligibility. The spotter has been suspended for the next three races.
Denny Hamlin, the driver Dillon was told to wreck, has called for NASCAR to remove spotters from the series altogether on the Door Bumper Clear podcast.
“I’m starting to be more and more in the boat of get rid of these stupid spotters, man.
“[You] might not like it, and I know it’ll never happen, and you can’t because we have superspeedways and it’s a safety thing. But they’ve got to shut the f*** up, man. They do, they’re not driving the car.”
In the NASCAR rulebook for playoff eligibility, it states “[r]ace finishes must be unincumbered by violations of the NASCAR rules, or other actions detrimental to stock car racing, or NASCAR, as determined in the sole discretion of NASCAR.” In simple terms, Dillon fucked around and now he’s finding out.
I’m glad the series actually had the desire and ability to set this wrong right, and punish Austin Dillon for his actions.
NASCAR also fined Joey Logano for his frustrated actions in pit lane following the finish. As Dillon’s crew were running across pit lane to celebrate with their driver, Logano was coming down to his pit box after having been punted from near-certain race victory. In addition to driving too close to people in his way, he romped on the throttle near staff and NASCAR officials in a way that could be construed as threatening. He will pay a $50,000 fine for his actions.