2-Headed Monster: Was NASCAR’s Penalty for Austin Dillon and RCR Appropriate?

Following a two-week break for Olympics coverage, NASCAR was keen to get back in the headlines.

Austin Dillon did not disappoint, as his last-lap actions at Richmond Raceway raised the ire of virtually everyone not wearing a No. 3 t-shirt or Bass Pro Shops hat. NASCAR responded late Wednesday afternoon, allowing Dillon to keep the win but deeming it ineligible for playoff consideration. It was an unprecedented penalty, but with an unprecedented set of circumstances surrounding it. This week, Vito Pugliese and Amy Henderson decide if the penalty fit the crime in 2-Headed Monster.

A Penalty with Lasting Reverberations

In a move that many had thought would not be coming Wednesday afternoon, NASCAR took action against Dillon after the fracas at Richmond Raceway on Sunday (Aug. 11) night.

Dillon’s desperation move to take out leader Joey Logano and then new leader Denny Hamlin in one corner temporarily thrust him into the playoffs despite entering the race 32^nd in points. While he was allowed to keep the win, NASCAR deemed it ineligible to be counted towards the playoffs due to the manner in which he won.

Was it too harsh? After all, the principals involved are no stranger to walling the competition on the final lap. Logano sent William Byron into the turn 3 wall at Darlington in 2022 and Hamlin assisted Kyle Larson into the wall at Kansas to win last season.

All things considered, it probably was the right call and in line with motivation behind the egregious maneuver.

NASCAR typically does not like to take away wins. Hamlin may beg to differ after NASCAR did just that – including having to return the trophy – after being disqualified at Pocono in 2022 due to a Post-It Note-sized piece of wrap that was masking a body contour on the nose of his car. In this instance, the win stands, but playoff eligibility is rescinded.

Keep in mind what accompanies that.

Beyond the driver bonus incentive for making the playoffs, there is the team incentive from the sponsor, as well as the end-of-year points payout. Yes, there is a very significant difference between finishing 32^nd in points and, at worst, 16^th for just making the playoffs. All told, while “win and you’re in” sounds like a license to do whatever it takes, it ended up costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Compounding the issue, the opportunities for both Dillon and Kyle Busch to still make it in on a win are also waning. That said, Dillon did have the race in hand before Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wrecked Ryan Preece – the only caution other than stage breaks all evening – coming to 1 lap to go. So maybe the RCR bunch has finally figured something out with regards to speed that will manifest itself between both cars the next few weeks.

It should also be noted that Stenhouse absolutely, definitely, has had no issues with the Richard Childress Racing teams at any point this season. Not one. Ever. So there’s for sure nothing to look into there with all of the SMT data and radio transmissions.

NASCAR was put in the position of having to do something with driver conduct before it manifests itself in the playoffs. The “win at all costs” mantra that has permeated the current championship format was bound to escalate at some point; the Hail Melon was one thing. This one made Bowman Gray blush.

Now before we drown ourselves in righteous indignation, we have seen worse incidents over recent years: Kevin Harvick had a mechanical failure and intentionally wrecked the field at Talladega to advance in 2015, and Ty Gibbs crashed his own teammate Brandon Jones at Martinsville Speedway in 2023.

Neither driver was penalized in those instances, but should have been.

The optics alone were absurd and looked like something out of an online gaming session gone haywire. Couple that with the No. 3 spotter transmission imploring the driver to wreck Hamlin and the corresponding data presented on Twitter showing abrupt wheel movement at the time of contact, it would be irresponsible for them not to act.

There have been a lot of opinions on the moves by Austin Dillon on the last lap but best way to analyze them is to look at the actual data so let's dig into his last two laps in a quick thread.

Orange = Lap 407
Blue = Lap 408 pic.twitter.com/t104uOyX7L

— Bozi Tatarevic (@BoziTatarevic) August 12, 2024

There was a time when Richard Childress would have gotten the benefit of the doubt with regards to a no-call with championship implications. Charlotte in October 1990 comes to mind, when the No. 3 team was allowed to pit the car on the apron of the race track after they left all the lug nuts loose and the wheels fell off.

This is a new era, however and it was obvious from the moment it occurred that a line had been crossed. Some may argue (like Amy!) that the penalty does not go far enough to deter similar desperation moves across the three series. Given the accompanying financial implications that will result from the No. 3 team likely missing the playoffs now, it is a much more severe penalty than might appear on the surface. – Vito Pugliese

NASCAR Dropped the Ball, Because it’s Not Only About Austin Dillon

NASCAR came down hard on Dillon after he knocked not one, but two cars out of his way to take the win at Richmond.

Dillon was docked 25 driver points, and while the race win stands, Dillon will not be playoff-eligible based on that win (if he wins in the next three weeks, he could still make the cut). He receives no playoff points from the race and it would not count in playoff seeding should he get in.

NASCAR was right to penalize Dillon for the incident; not only is video evidence damning by itself, but both Dillon’s radio recording and SMT data show intent to his rough driving. NASCAR has cracked down on intentional wrecking over the last couple of years, especially the kind of right-rear hook Dillon used on Hamlin. The extra playoff penalty is justified because Dillon wrecked two drivers.

And somewhere, someone at NASCAR probably heaved a sigh of relief because nobody has to justify why the driver who started the weekend a lowly 32^nd in points is suddenly a title contender. 

But NASCAR should have stripped the win. 

The sanctioning body considered it, but there was no concrete rule about the situation. And maybe there was a little bit of a sympathy call, too; Dillon had the race won easily until the caution flew for an incident he was not involved in, setting up the overtime restart. Logano outdrove Dillon on that restart and Dillon apparently didn’t think he could pass Logano cleanly, because he had to overdrive the corner so hard to get to him. Perhaps NASCAR was acknowledging that Dillon had had the race in hand.

By letting the win stand, NASCAR only accomplishes part of what it needed to with the penalties. It’s been made clear that playoff drivers wrecking others or driving recklessly to win or advance in the championship won’t be tolerated. 

That’s good, and it legitimizes the eventual champion in that he will have had to race cleanly to get there. Clean doesn’t mean not aggressively, just that there are lines not to be crossed.

What it doesn’t address is the rest of the field, the drivers who didn’t make the playoffs. The only thing they can do to salvage their season is win. And Dillon’s win is still a win. The trophy is still on his shelf.

So what’s stopping a driver from punting another one out of the way for a win during the playoffs if he’s not in the playoffs? He’ll still have the trophy.

And he could have something more.

Picture this: it’s the final race of the year, at Phoenix. A title contender is leading in the closing laps. A driver who was either already eliminated or who missed entirely is running second and gaining. But the laps are ticking down. He has time to catch the leader, but pass him? That’s another story.

So, with the race win on the line, the second-place driver takes aim on the leader’s bumper. Maybe he hasn’t won in years, maybe never at all. And it’s now or never.

It’s the last lap and for the win, so he sends the leader to get by. He’s pretty sure that NASCAR won’t take the win, so he has nothing to lose.

The leader, however, loses the title.

Want to kick that up a notch? What if the now-winner’s teammate was very much in the hunt, and now he has the title because of the hit?

A similar situation could happen in an elimination race as well.

NASCAR was right to penalize Dillon, but in letting him keep the win, they open up a new can of worms. And once they’re out, they’re hard to put back in. — Amy Henderson