NASCAR Doesn’t Rule Out Taking Away Austin Dillon’s Richmond Win: “Awful Close To The Line”

Austin Dillon is in the playoffs – for now.

NASCAR returned from a two-week hiatus last night, with the Cup Series hitting the track at Richmond Raceway for the Cook Out 400. And in true short track fashion, the tempers were flaring.

It was a fairly uneventful race, with the first caution not coming until 2 laps to go.

Austin Dillon, who came into the race sitting at 32nd in the points and needing a win to make the playoffs, was headed towards a major upset when Ryan Preece and Ricky Stenhouse brought out the caution and set up an overtime finish.

The field came down pit road, and Dillon managed to maintain the lead while Joey Logano came out 2nd and Denny Hamlin in 3rd.

On the final restart, Logano managed to get by the #3 car and looked to be on his way to keeping Richard Childress Racing out of victory lane.

But as they went into turn 3 on the final lap, Dillon decided to dive bomb Logano and put the bumper to him, sending the #22 spinning and opening the door for a drag race between Hamlin and Dillon for the victory.

Or so it seemed…

Dillon wasn’t going to be denied from winning his first race since August 2022, and hooked Hamlin in the right rear to also send the #11 car into the outside wall.

The end result was Dillon took the iconic #3 to victory lane – and pissed off Logano and Hamlin.

In his postrace interviews, the driver of the #22 Team Penske car had some harsh words for Dillon:

“It’s chickenshit, there’s no doubt about it. He’s four car lengths back, not even close, then he wrecks the 11 to go along with it. And then he’s going to go up there and thank God and praise everything with his baby. It’s a bunch of BS.

It’s not even freakin’ close. Dude, I get it, bump and run, I get it. I didn’t back up the corner at all. He came in there and just drove through me. It’s ridiculous that that’s the way we race.

I get bump and runs. I do that. I would expect it. But from 4 car lengths back he was never going to make the corner. And then he wrecks the other car, he wrecks the 11 to go with it. What a piece of crap.”

He wasn’t done yet though:

“He’s a piece of crap. He sucks. He’s sucked his whole career, and now he’s going to be in the playoffs.”

And while Hamlin wasn’t quite as heated, he obviously felt the same way:

But it wasn’t just the drivers involved in the wild finish who were disgusted by how it all went down. Drivers like Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain and Tyler Reddick all expressed their displeasure with Dillon’s move and what it means for the sport going forward.

Obviously drivers feel that it sets a bad precedent if NASCAR allows drivers to just right rear somebody into the wall for a win – not to mention the safety concerns if that happens at a bigger track.

So is NASCAR going to do anything about it?

Well after the race, NASCAR Senior VP of Competition Elton Sawyer addressed the media, and agreed that Dillon’s actions may have crossed the line:

“Our sport has been a contact sport for a long time. We always hear, ‘Where’s the line? Did someone cross the line?’ I would say that the last lap, it was awful close to the line. We’ll take a look at all of the available resources from audio to video, listen to spotters, we’ll listen to crew chiefs and drivers and if anything rises to a level that we feel like we need to penalize then we’ll do that on Tuesday.”

Asked specifically about taking the win away, Sawyer wouldn’t rule it out:

“Historically that hasn’t been our DNA to take races away. But that’s not to say that going forward this wouldn’t start to set a precedent. We’d have to look at it.”

It probably won’t help Dillon’s case that audio surfaced of his spotter telling the driver to wreck Hamlin as they were coming to the checkered flag:

Now, do I think NASCAR is actually going to take Dillon’s win away and remove him from the playoffs? Not at all. But I do think he’ll get some type of penalty, whether it’s a points penalty or a suspension. And there’s certainly precedent for suspending Dillon, after both Bubba Wallace and Chase Elliott have been suspended for intentionally hooking another driver in the right rear and sending them into the wall.

And listen, I’ll admit that I’m not exactly unbiased. I don’t think Dillon deserves to be in the #3 car, and I don’t think he WOULD be in the #3 car if his grandfather Richard Childress didn’t own the team. He was 32nd in points, one of the worst out of the full-time drivers, before yesterday’s race.

But now, thanks to a fluke win and some arguably dirty driving, he’s going to take up a spot in the playoffs that could have gone to somebody who may actually stand a chance of making it out of the first round…unless NASCAR decides to send a message and take away his win. I’m not holding my breath though.