Austin Dillon and his crew received penalties from NASCAR on Wednesday. stern ones, to boot.
Dillon broke a regulation in the rules that prohibits drivers from driving in a way that is harmful to the sport, thus he cannot utilize his contentious victory at Richmond to guarantee his spot in the playoffs.
Before taking the checkered flag in the Cook Out 400, Dillon wrecked Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano, according to NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer. This was a clear violation of the rules.
“Oh, yes, yes, yes. In a video that NASCAR posted, Sawyer stated that the race company was not really interested in becoming involved in this. We have permitted our drivers to race for many years and we will do so in the future.
All of the drivers in those national series garages—at the Truck, Xfinity, and Cup levels—know exactly where the boundary is. Occasionally, they might inquire as to where the line is.
I promise that if you ask them where it is as you pass by and ask them, they will know. Simply put, we believed that in this instance, we also needed to let them know where the line is. This is something we will not put up with.
Not only was Austin Dillon not allowed to use the victory as a playoff berth, but he also lost 25 driver and owner points. When Brandon Benesch, his spotter, encouraged Dillon to wreck other drivers, he received a three-race suspension.
However, there was a lengthy wait before the fines were revealed, which caused anxiety for a few days for both Dillon and Logano. Logano was fined $50,000 for revving his engine close to a group of onlookers on pit road. NASCAR was adamant about making sure it had the Austin Dillon ruling correct.
According to Sawyer, “because of the importance of this decision, we had to go back, gather all the information, collaborate with all of our stakeholders and our highly experienced industry colleagues, compile all of that data, and then sit down and make a NASCAR decision.
And that’s exactly what we did.” “We started gathering the information on Sunday night, held meetings on Monday and yesterday, and last night came to a decision regarding the penalties.” In particular, the SMT data from the crashes was helpful to NASCAR when deciding how to discipline Austin Dillon.
“That definitely crossed a line in our opinion,” Sawyer stated. “Once more, deep emotions have been the foundation of our sport. Win and you’re in has been the basis for it.
However, we will become engaged in any matter if we believe a sanctioning body has overreached itself and jeopardizes the integrity of both our championship and the playoff system.
