Austin Dillon should have had the win taken away on Sunday at Richmond Raceway.
Period.
It’s hard for me, writing in the first person here, to express this because at my core, I’m still an Alabama short track hillbilly that believes in rubbin is racin and all your other favorite Days of Thunder idioms. That stock cars … or whatever passes for them these days … have fenders is what separates NASCAR from IndyCar.
I am loathe to anything that makes the Cup Series more closely resemble IMSA or Australian Supercars because tradin’ paint and rubbin’ fenders is inherently Stock Car racing.
But how you can you not watch the final corner of the Cup Series race back, and NASCAR did it for two minutes immediately after the checkered flag, and reach any other conclusion than a disqualification of the Richard Childress Racing No. 3?
In a vacuum, Dillon refusing to lift until he connected with Joey Logano in Turn 3 was ethically dubious but well within the lines of what NASCAR traditionally deems acceptable. In fact, Dillon certainly isn’t the first driver of the No. 3 to win a race while rattling the leader’s cage .
It’s what came next, in addition to the first intentional crash, that makes the entire ordeal worthy of disqualification. With Denny Hamlin making a run below the stalled Dillon, and with spotter Brandon Benesch keying up ‘wreck him,’ leading exactly to that outcome is what makes this one so egregious.
And certainly, NASCAR has proven to be less sensitive to right rear hooks on shorter tracks than intermediates but it’s still one of the most ethically questionable things a racer could do to another. But beyond that, it was the holistic reality that Dillon was no longer racing but instead opting to become a one-man wrecking ball that would stop at nothing to get to the finish line first.
In a more perfect world, NASCAR wouldn’t have to be in the spotlight of potentially taking the win away because the garage used to have a way of policing itself, but this is where the current powers that be have failed their competitors the most.
If NASCAR allows the win to stand with no major repercussions, both Hamlin and Logano are well within their rights to seek their own form of street justice but that is where NASCAR has proven it will always respond.
Also Read: Opinion: Actions Detrimental to NASCAR? Please. The most bewildering decision NASCAR has made this season was fining Ricky Stenhouse Jr. $75,000 for punching Kyle Busch in retaliation for being intentionally crashed at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Apparently, Stenhouse should have just waited for a short track and right reared him into the wall.
Logano and Hamlin probably wanted to throw a punch but that’s just as expensive as cheating up the greenhouse of a NextGen car now.
Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer has proven time and time again that the original aggressor will get away unpunished, and when it comes time for the original debt to be paid, the retaliation is what draws their scrutiny.
But really, this is about a much bigger picture, and it’s the same one that NASCAR has wrestled with throughout the entire social media era and it is this constant tug-of-war between the sporting angels and entertainment devils on its shoulder.
With the exception of the Team Penske No. 22 and Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 teams, we were certainly all entertained but we should also be wrestling with that entertainment devil over how far is too far.
Again, Dillon entered that final corner with no intent to be a race car driver whatsoever, armed with the marching order of ‘whatever it takes’ in his ears and responded accordingly. It was late night video game behavior and he was rewarded with a ticket to what should be the most exclusive club in the sport — the Field of 16.
And by the way, this is written with full empathy for why Dillon felt compelled to do it, knowing very well how drastically those two decisions would completely change the definition of his season. Doing whatever it took to get to the finish line first is the difference between a 30th place championship result and a non-zero chance to win the championship.
And with even more empathy, I recognize that Dillon had the race won fairly before the final caution with two laps to go, but also that he lost it based on his lane selection and restart.
Ultimately, Dillon didn’t have to do that, and as the great Tour Type Modified racer Matt Hirschman once put it, it’s often a matter of wanted to do it .
A bump-and-run that goes too far is part-and-parcel to the very identity of the sport but what happened at the end of Richmond was a step too far.
The silence from Daytona Beach and Charlotte is complicity and permission.
From the moment NASCAR moved its championship race to Phoenix it has subliminally begged its final four to use the dogleg short cut to wipe each other out. In moving Atlanta to the playoffs this year and moving Talladega to the Round of 8 next year, the powers that be have already told you how much stock they put into sporting integrity.
This is the culture NASCAR has spent a decade in cultivating but there has to be a line.
This was not racin’ and it wasn’t rubbin ’ but a pair of full-fledged intentional crashes and we all … as observers, consumers, competitors and officials … need to wrestle with those entertainment devils and reach a conclusion over if this is the kind of sport we aspire towards.
There’s still time for Sawyer, Steve Phelps and Jim France to find their better angels too.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter .
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