Why NASCAR penalized Austin Dillon for Richmond finish and what comes next

Austin Dillon remains the winner of Sunday’s Cookout 400 at Richmond Raceway but he will not receive all the perks associated with winning a NASCAR Cup Series race.

NASCAR’s championship format advances all race winners into the Cup Series elimination playoff as long as there are 16 or fewer winners, in which case the tiebreaker goes to the driver highest in points, which is an extremely unlikely scenario anyway.

The win for Dillon, beyond the pride of breaking a 68-race winless drought, also catapulted him from a career worst season that has him outside of the top-30 in the championship standings into the Round of 16, meaning he could finish no worse than 16th by the end of the season.

That’s a difference in at least two million dollars in championship purse money between those two spots in the final rankings.

But NASCAR determined by Wednesday that the victory would stand but that it would be encumbered per the rule book, meaning that Dillon is no longer has an automatic berth into the playoffs with three regular season races to go.

The same holds true in the owner standings for the Richard Childress Racing No. 3 team regarding the owner standings.

NASCAR reached this conclusion after reviewing throttle and steering data from the final corner in which Dillon crashed both Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin in order to reach the finish line first. There was also radio transmission audio from Brandon Benesch, who told his driver to ‘wreck him,’ when Hamlin went to pass after the first incident.

Benesch has been suspended for the next three races through the duration of the regular season for his actions. Dillon and the No. 3 car has received both a 25-point deduction towards the championship standings too.

NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition spent 10 minutes on a video conference call with reporters on Wednesday and took a handful of questions on the topic.

What factored into the decision?

“If you take the total body of work, starting at Turn 3, the contact between (Dillon) and (Logano) as it progressed all the way through 3 and 4 and (Hamlin) all the way through the finish line, we took all of that in totality.

As we looked at it, the number one 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.

We wanted to make sure that our competitors understood 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.”

How was the decision reached?

“So starting (on) Sunday night, gathering all the data (and) working again on Monday, all day yesterday and looking at all the SMT data, in-car cameras, the audio gathering, all of those facts and the meetings that we needed to have … we arrived obviously the decision we did.”

Was Dillon hitting Logano enough to warrant this decision?

“I want to protect the integrity of the appeal process and I want to make sure that both our side, NASCAR, and the Richard Childers Racing team side … that I’m not getting into the details other than we looked at it from the totality of everything that happened as the 3 entered Turn 3 and made contact with the 22, and again, as I said earlier, the contact that was made with the 3 and 11 on the exit of the corner.”

Where is the line now?

“If you walk through that garage this weekend and you (ask drivers), they are going to know where the line is. I promise you, as a race car driver, they know where the line was. They’ve done this a long time.

It’s been a few years since I did it but I promise you I knew where the line was between hard NASCAR racing, a little bump and tire mark, moving a guy up out of the groove to win a race, we’ve done that for years.

“What happened on Sunday night crossed the line and it was the totality, again, I use that word, but that’s the way we looked at it. It wasn’t one particular thing. It was the progression all the way through the turn that led us to our decision.”

Does this change NASCAR’s identity as contact racing?

“No, I don’t think so because as I said earlier, we want to, we encourage that. We want our drivers to go out and race hard and, and contact as I said, Sunday night, and I’ll say it again, that’s been our DNA for 75 plus years.

“But what happened Sunday night in NASCAR’s view, and again, looking at all the data and analyzing that and talking about it, that crossed the line. That’s not the type of racing, and that’s not the way we want our races to end.

“That’s not the way we want to decide a champion. That’s not the way we want to decide an event. So, we’ve had races this year where we’ve had drivers that have made contact (and) went on to win the race, which is totally fine.

“We do not want to be in the middle of officiating every contact that the drivers are making on the racetrack. In this particular case, obviously, as I’ve said, it crossed the line and that’s why we looked into it much deeper.”

Why not disqualify Austin Dillon?

“We (considered it) and as we looked through the rule book, there’s not at the moment really a mechanism in the rule book that gives us that option. That’s something we can look at in the future. But, just based off our rule book language and using that to guide us in making this decision, that’s how we reached out decision.”

Elton Sawyer on the time it took to reach this decision

Ultimately, we would like to and we will get to a place where we’re making this (decision) more on the spot, if you will. Again, we wanted to make sure the most important thing in these decisions is to get them right and to (have made) a split-second decision and it be wrong would be bad on our part.

“So as stewards of the sport, the amount of time it took, and in this case, getting it right versus being fast on the decision, it was more important to take the time to get it correct. It does put us, I would say, in a position that we’re looking hard at how we could have done this in a much faster manner.”

What now?

Richard Childress Racing has immediately filed an appeal of NASCAR’s ruling.

“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,” the team said in a statement.

The first stage of an appeal is for NASCAR and Richard Childress Racing representatives to appear before the National Motorsports Appeals Panel, a group independently established to hear such arguments with impartiality.

The group includes former drivers, team owners, track operators and executives and a handful that come from outside of racing. The three panelists for any one case are selected based on their area of expertise and the subject matter of the case.

These panelists are also volunteers and do not get paid to serve through the process.

Once an appeal is heard, the panelists can uphold the penalty, amend the penalty or increase the penalty. Afterwards, the team has the option to make a final appeal if the panelists rule against them but NASCAR does not receive that same option.

This process could take a week or weeks but this decision will have to be made within the next three weeks with the playoffs approaching.

Why is this so painful for the 3 team

There is a sentiment out there that since Dillon remains the winner, this is just a slap on the wrist, but while he keeps the win, his team loses literally every benefit attached with it.

• He is no longer in the playoffs
• He is still outside of the top-30 in the points
• The difference between making the playoffs and finishing outside of the top-30 is $2 million is championship money

This is a legitimate wound to Dillon, his grandfather’s team, and just their reputation in general. The $2 million accounts for an eight of their overall budget needed to race each season. From that standpoint, this is effectively a $2 million-plus fine from Sunday to Wednesday.

And even with the penalty, Dillon’s actions still denied both Logano and Hamlin wins, and five playoff points that come with that … and they very well could feel further aggrieved should they get eliminated from playoff contention this fall too.

More must-reads:

• Joey Logano fined by NASCAR for his actions during Richmond post-race
• Retired NASCAR champion Kurt Busch arrested on DWI, reckless driving charges
• NASCAR takes unprecedented action against Austin Dillon, team after Richmond finish