Mark Martin reacts to line drawn by NASCAR, penalties for Austin Dillon, Joey Logano at Richmond

Mark Martin joined the latest episode of DJD Reloaded , where he reacted to the line drawn by NASCAR with their penalties for Austin Dillon and Joey Logano following last weekend’s finish at Richmond.

There might not be a better wheelman to talk to about the entire situation than Martin, with the legend’s wealth of experience in NASCAR. Martin hearkened back to some memorable moments throughout his career, and how he believes racing has evolved as a whole since his time behind the wheel ended.

“Well, I don’t know. We had very few of them,” Martin said, regarding penalties for moving someone out of the way for the win . “You know, I think about Bristol and Terry Labonte and [Dale] Earnhardt , and we didn’t have a penalty then, but in our etiquette, you know, that was over the line. However, do not forget Sonoma, when they took the win away from Ricky Rudd . I mean, you know that’s so — it’s kind of weird, when you look at that one instance, it seemed, as compared to how it’s handled every other time since then, that was really harsh, but they did it, and they had the opportunity to make that call Sunday night.

“I’m kind of a believer in the winner is the winner, and we need to know who won, so they would’ve had to make that call, like, within a minute or two or three. You know, they did it at Sonoma. You know, we’re in a day and age when you — the cars are, all the stuff, even, you know, double-file restarts, green-white-checkereds, taking horsepower away. All these things are designed to make a show for entertainment. You can’t get away from these guys. I mean, gee, Joey, in one lap, got as big a lead as you can expect to get, and it still wasn’t enough. So, these guys are going to run over each other. That’s not going to change.

“The culture has changed. You see it. I watch short-track racing all the time. You see it from these kids that are teenagers, all the way up. It’s going to be that way. I wish that it was done with more integrity. Bump-and-run is okay. The reason I never did bump-and-run, because my luck would be that the guy would wreck and it would kill him. Okay? And that’s severe, but that’s my kind of look. I don’t believe I was a good enough driver to, you know, to rub somebody out of the way like that. But these guys are really good at it. And if you can move a guy, I say that’s fair game. If you try to move a guy and he wrecks, I don’t — I don’t like that. That’s over the line, for me.”

While Martin doesn’t believe this will lead to a major shift in the way drivers race each other for the win, the NASCAR legend elaborated on why he believes it was more of a situational thing for Dillon than anything, all factors considered.

“I think this is kind of a one-off situation. You’re going to rarely have someone that was in that exact situation as Austin,” Martin added . “I mean, he had the race in the bag, then, you know, and he got beat on the restart, and you know, he was facing a horrible season and a chance to get in the playoffs. He didn’t, you know, he didn’t plan. He planned to hit the No. 22 and go win the race. It all went wrong once he hit the No. 22, and wound up catching up Denny. So, you know, it’s a double problem for Austin, because, you know, he would’ve gotten by with that, if Denny hadn’t entered the picture. So, I just don’t think the opportunity is going to come around.

“I hope it doesn’t. I don’t think it’s good for our sport, long term, to be having, you know, real, real rough finishes. Racing side-by-side, grinding, a little bumper tag, you know, that’s all. That’s today’s racing. But we don’t want to see these guys wreck, or get wrecked, you know, racing for the lead. That’s not racing.”

Alas, Mark Martin makes some salient points throughout his soliloquy, and many of today’s wheelmen would do well to listen to the legend’s advice. Time will tell what the effect is that these penalties have on the sport, and if they truly make a difference moving forward.

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