1. That Playoff Picture Shake-Up You Asked for Has Arrived
Just in case the time off for the Olympics lulled you into thinking it was going to be a drama-free road to the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, consider that Richmond Raceway ending the jolt you needed to sit right back up and pay attention.
Austin Dillon was almost certainly not going to be among the 16 drivers competing for the series championship this fall. Now he is, having moved heaven and hell — or at the very least, Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin — to ensure he’s in the field.
With 13 drivers who have won at least one race, that leaves only three spots available via points. One is going to go to Martin Truex Jr. barring a three-race stretch even more catastrophic than his playoff run last year.
Ty Gibbs seemed pretty safe going into Richmond, and at 18 points to the good right now, history suggests he should be. One more first-time winner would change that in a hurry, and of course Daytona International Speedway is looming to make that a non-zero chance.
That leaves Bubba Wallace, who went through the emotional ringer to make the playoffs in 2023 just to end up back in the same situation. His top-five run at Richmond was timely, but he’s now just three points up on both Ross Chastain and Chris Buescher.
Should the spot that those three drivers are contesting stay in play, give Wallace and his team the edge just because they’ve been through this before and Buescher, in particular, hasn’t shown the form he had last season. But that’s far from a sure thing, and it wouldn’t be surprising at all to see the pecking order change from race to race through Darlington Raceway.
2. We Just Saw the Ultimate ‘Reap What You’ve Sown’ Moment for the NASCAR Playoffs
The debate is going to rage on several justifiable fronts until we learn what if any punishment NASCAR doles out to Dillon. Should he be suspended? If he is, would NASCAR give him a playoff waiver for a situation he created himself? Or would it do the unthinkable and strip the victory from him, something the governing body has historically been loathe to do?
Much of the early reaction has zeroed in on Dillon and his team, judging what his actions say about him and his crew. While those are all valid topics to discuss, they almost miss the greater point.
Namely, that this was going to happen eventually no matter who ended up in Dillon’s position.
The potential for a “screw it, I’m wrecking anyone I have to” moment is baked into NASCAR’s postseason qualification system. Running well and racking up points is nice, but generally only as a fallback (see again: Truex). Winning is rewarded over consistency, a sort of overcorrection to the old season-long points system.
When the regular season starts winding down, the pressure only ratchets up. Again, this is a feature, not a bug, something NASCAR intended when it first dreamt the playoff system up. It wants drivers desperate to make that field of 16.
The problem is that the old cliche exists for a reason: desperate times call for desperate measures. Dillon looked like he was going to race his way to a clean win. A late caution changed that calculus, which left him with only one course of action.
Given the outsized importance of wins, especially for drivers dead to rights on points, it’s hard to argue against Dillon wrecking two cars to get to victory lane. Even Hamlin, who had to be fuming, said he understood it during his post-race interview.
As long as we’re going down this road, something else to consider: Instead of Wallace grinding it out in a three-way battle for the final spot on points, wouldn’t he, too, be well within his rights to bash cars out of the way to take a checkered flag sometime in the next three weeks?
That’s not to say that NASCAR shouldn’t discipline Dillon. There are compelling reasons to carefully consider all the options. But if it does, it’s going to at least have to have some sort of reckoning with the idea that the rules it put in place to make the playoffs have led inevitably to a moment like the one we just witnessed at Richmond.
3. Payback is a … Well, You Know
Except for perhaps baseball, no sport self-polices quite like NASCAR. Actions of the track generally have consequences, because the aggrieved parties in any on-track run-in where blame can be assigned (meaning not caused by a mechanical issue, blown tire, etc.) tend to find ways to balance out the karma scale at some opportune time.
Hamlin certainly hinted this would be the case with Dillon when he said the latest winner was “just not gonna go far because you gotta pay your dues back on stuff like that.” It was a pretty low-ranking quote on the scale of veiled threats, but it does raise a further issue about acceptable retaliation.
If Hamlin looks for some retribution at Darlington, it almost doesn’t matter. He and Dillon, as well as Logano, don’t need a result there to make the postseason.
On the other hand, let’s say Dillon is on the bubble to advance to the Round of 12 at Bristol, and Hamlin or Logano decides that’s the time for the bill to come due. Will NASCAR consider that unacceptable because of the implications, or will that simply be the bed Dillon has to lie in after Richmond?
It’s just another fascinating subplot still left to unfold before a Cup Series champion is crowned.
4. Did Dillon Just Become Part of the Non-NASCAR Fan Zeitgeist?
Prior to the past weekend, here are all the NASCAR moments that got anyone who doesn’t usually care about stock car racing to take notice of it in the post-pandemic era, and arguably in the last decade:
- Chastain’s Hail Melon at Martinsville in 2022.
- Shane van Gisbergen won the inaugural Chicago Street Race in his first Cup Series start in 2023.
- The first-ever Busch Light Clash at The Coliseum before the 2022 season.
That’s the complete list, and even No. 3 is a stretch.
It’s hard to judge in the immediate aftermath, but Dillon might have squeezed his way on too. The Richmond finish was one of ESPN’s top stories online, which rarely happens these days. There’s a sense that people are talking about it widely, though anecdotally, no one who knows I follow NASCAR closely has asked me to explain what happened yet, which was a thing after the Hail Melon.
Let’s revisit this in a week and see if Dillon makes any media appearances outside the usual outlets.
5. The Most Heretical Thing About NASCAR’s EV Prototype Has Nothing to Do With Its Batteries
While common sense would suggest that we’re years away from an all-electric NASCAR if it ever comes to pass, there is still work being done on prototype EV racecars. Bozi Tatarevic of Road & Track just took a detailed look at NASCAR’s most recent EV tests, uncovering some interesting nuggets.
The latest prototype weighs only a bit more than a half-ton more than the current Cup Series car and produces around 800 hp in race trim. It’s much quieter, but former Cup driver David Ragan and a senior NASCAR engineer pointed out there are upsides to that in the form of being able to hear things that point to potential adjustments.
Here’s the part where some pearl-clutching might enter the mix:
Another element of the car that might make an appearance elsewhere, for better or for worse, is the crossover bodywork. NASCAR traditionally served to market sedans, but the more rotund crossover shape has become more important to manufacturers over the past 15 years. This prototype EV allows NASCAR to test out the CUV look in an experimental fashion and gauge fan response to see if it might be feasible for use in a support series in the future.
Electric racecars? I think I could be talked into that.
Racing crossovers or small SUVs? Now you might have lost me.
The two biggest examples of the wreck and run are Logano and Hamlin. Dillon saw his chance and ran up front a good portion of Stage 3 and did what he had to do to get in the chase. That’s the animal that Nascar has created. That was the only way Dillon was going to make it in. If you were in his seat, and finally had a competitive car, what would you have done?
Logano and Hamlin, the Pot. Dillon, the Kettle
They can run SUV’s in the Truck series. No where else.
Your wrong. It’s not hard to argue against Dillon Intentionally wrecking two cars to get to victory lane. He’s a slime ball with no class. See how easy that was.
If you watch the SMT data video, Dillon maintained the middle lane on the track after he spun out Logano. Denny just kept coming up the track as if he wasn’t there? 🤔🤷🏼♂️
I haven’t watched the data, but what you say wouldn’t surprise me. That’s always been Denny’s MO. He takes everyone up towards the wall. I’ll watch the data. Austin is still a slime ball with no class though.
So, I’ve been thinking of ” whatever necessary to get in”in other sports. Anything that can be gotten away with in football, baseball or hockey to get to their perspective finals? An innocent kick of a golf ball to better the lie in the Masters? Only thing I can think of is something hidden in the shorts of a WWE wrestler.