1. Was allowing Austin Dillon to keep his win the correct decision?
Earlier this week, I wrote that NASCAR was at a crossroads and that it would have to decide whether or not it wanted to open a Pandora’s box of aggressive and dirty driving or draw a line on things a driver can’t do to win a race.
NASCAR elected to pursue the latter Aug. 14, as it determined that the line of racing etiquette — no matter how vague it may be — was crossed by Austin Dillon and the No. 3 team last weekend at Richmond Raceway in the NASCAR Cup Series. NASCAR allowed the win to stand, but the sanctioning body docked Dillon and the No. 3 team 25 points and stripped them of their playoff eligibility in both the driver’s and owner’s championships.
Dillon essentially scored an encumbered win — a win without any of the playoff benefits — which was last seen in the 2017 and 2018 seasons when a winning car failed post-race inspection.
But NASCAR starting disqualifying cars that failed post-race inspection in 2019, and Denny Hamlin was the first Cup driver to be stripped of the win at Pocono Raceway in 2022. Given that disqualifications aren’t unprecedented in NASCAR, should it have gone the extra step in taking Dillon’s win away, especially since it felt he had crossed the line?
In this particular instance, no. While I wouldn’t be opposed to anyone that wanted to do so, stripping Dillon of the win would have the unintended consequence of generating controversy over the rightful winner.
Should the win be awarded to Joey Logano, given that he had the race won until Dillon pulled his stunts? Or should it be given to Hamlin, who was going to win after Logano’s spin and was scored second in the official finishing order? Or, to not pick a side between the two, how about Tyler Reddick, who would’ve finished second had the final moments of the race ended under green-flag conditions?
One could make a solid case for any of the three, so NASCAR allowing the win to stand for the car that crossed first was the correct decision.
2. What is Kaulig Racing’s long-term plan?
Kaulig Racing revealed Aug. 15 that AJ Allmendinger will be back full time in the Cup Series in 2025.
Allmendinger last ran full time in Cup for Kaulig in 2023, when he scored his third career win in a dominant performance at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL last October. While concerns about sponsorship kept him out of the seat full time in 2024, that appears to be no issue for next year.
There is no doubt that Allmendinger is Kaulig’s flagship driver, as he is responsible for both of the team’s Cup wins and more than half of its 26 NASCAR Xfinity Series victories. But he will also turn 43 in December, and he will be older than every full-time Cup driver next year with the exception of Hamlin.
It also doesn’t help that Allmendinger had to spend part of this Cup season on the sidelines, as the No. 16 team will have to rebuild the chemistry from 2023 and start over from scratch after the revolving door of drivers in 2024. If Allmendinger had been in the car full time both last and this year, there’s no doubt that the team would have better chemistry — and possibly better results — than it does now.
What further complicates the situation at Kaulig is that it’s been a dreadful season for the team across the board in both Cup and Xfinity aside from Shane van Gisbergen’s heroics, and not a single full-time driver on the team is younger than 30. Full-time Cup driver Daniel Hemric is 33, while its Xfinity lineup currently consists of Allmendinger (42), Josh Williams (31) and van Gisbergen (35), with the latter looking poised for a promotion to Trackhouse Racing.
What is Kaulig’s long-term future? Who will be its flagship driver when/if Allmendinger decides to call a career down the road? The team will have at least one (and possibly two) full-time Xfinity seats for the taking next year.
3. Have option tires saved short tracks?
While it got overshadowed in the grand scheme of things, it’s important to not forget that the option tires exceeded expectations at Richmond after their ho hum debut in the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
While the option tires did make some difference at North Wilkesboro, no one was able to see their full effects since NASCAR required the teams to use the same tire at the beginning of the race.
That was not the case at Richmond, and the first two drivers to pull the trigger were Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell, whose teams elected to put on the red soft option tires under the first stage caution.
What happened on the restart was a sight to behold, as Suarez roared from just outside the top 20 to the lead in only 12 laps, passing the dominant Joe Gibbs Racing cars that had run 1-2-3 up to that point. While the tires eventually gave out and allowed Christopher Bell to retake the lead during the long green-flag run, the cat was out of the bag: The option tires were a significant advantage at the start of the run.
Most of the frontrunners elected to save the soft tires for the final runs to the finish, while some of the teams toward the back elected to the put the tires on in the middle of stage two in an effort to make up lost ground.
With zero cautions (excluding stage breaks) until lap 399, winning strategy was pretty cut-and-dry, as the frontrunners used the option tires for the first two stints of the final stage before switching back to the hard prime tires for the homestretch.
While no team was able to use the tires to pull off a stunning upset (though Suarez certainly tried), the drastic difference in tire wear between the two sets is exactly what the doctor ordered for short and flat tracks. The tires should be an absolute must at Martinsville Speedway in November, and when perfected, the tires could be used at road courses and even the finale at Phoenix Raceway.
Expect option tires to become the new standard within a few years. The Next Gen car isn’t going anywhere, and the option tires have done perhaps the best job to mask some of the car’s weaknesses.
4. Three spots, four drivers, three races. Who will round out this year’s playoff grid?
If you’re a fan of Ty Gibbs, Bubba Wallace, Chris Buescher or Ross Chastain, Wednesday’s news brought you a sigh of relief.
One extra spot of cushion has been returned, and as it stands right now, the quartet is separated by only 18 points. As long as we get no new winners, three of the drivers will make it, while one will be left as the odd one out.
Even if we get three new winners in the final three races of the regular season, it appears that Martin Truex Jr.’s spot is all but secured. Yes, the No. 19 team has been in a bit of a tailspin recently (including a last-place finish after an expired engine at Richmond), but it should have enough speed to maintain a 60-point buffer over the next three races, even if the worst-case scenario happens.
As for the other four within striking distance of the cut line, all of them have at least one track that plays to their respective strengths before the playoffs begin.
Gibbs has excelled at Michigan International Speedway in Xfinity, and he scored a runner-up finish at Darlington Raceway in May. Buescher looked to be on his way to winning at Darlington in May until late contact with Reddick, and he also picked up wins at Michigan and Daytona International Speedway last summer. Wallace finished in the top five at Daytona this year and scored a runner-up finish at Michigan in 2022. Chastain has one of his best tracks in Darlington on the horizon. That’s not even mentioning February, when he was one lap away from a Daytona 500 crown.
The race is close enough that it’s going to come down to who can avoid attrition. Gibbs has the disadvantage with two engine problems in the last three races, while the second race of Daytona is the biggest wildcard for both its tendency of huge crashes and unique winners that may change the playoff cut line entirely.
For all the drivers on the cut line, this weekend at Michigan will be all about maximizing performance before seeing where the dust settles after what will most likely be a chaotic 400 miles.
As for my predictions on who will make the final cut (assuming there are no new winners), I will go with the three drivers that are currently in: Gibbs, Wallace and Buescher.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Can find on Twitter @stephen_stumpf.
What Nascar should have done besides stripping Dillon of the win, and they have in the past when a caution comes out on the last lap is gone back to the last scoring loop and frozen the field. In this particular case Logano wins and Hamlin is second. Dillon not only cost the 22 a win which would have moved him from 10th to 6th in the standings but also 5 playoff points which could prove crucial in the playoffs. But then again Logano drives a Ford and not a Chevy so there you have it.
Dillon should lose the win. Scoring loop goes to Logano, Dillon to last place.
Back in 1991, Ricky Rudd was stripped of a race win when he bumped Davey Allison to pass him and win. There was a big outcry, and NASCAR chose not to do that again. From Wikipedia:
“Later in the year at Sonoma, Rudd was the center of controversy in one of the most bizarre finishes in NASCAR. Rudd started on pole at the race, and was offered a bonus paycheck with the winning money if he won the race. Rudd took the second spot with 3 laps left, and when the white flag was waved Rudd tapped Davey Allison to take the lead. When Rudd came back around to the finish line he waved to his pit crew but was shown a black flag for the tap. His win was taken away and given to Allison who refired to end up in second place. Rudd ended up in second place; Rick Hendrick, and crew chief Waddell Wilson unsuccessfully tried to appeal the penalties.”
Just a little history of the sport trying to clean itself up. As for Austin Dylan, he wrecked Aric Almirola to win the Daytona 500 as well.
Ricky Rudd, 1991, Sonoma.
If this rule was applied to DALE EARNHARTD SN. he would never won a race!!!!!!!!!!!
The 3 races I remember Earnhardt Sr wrecking going for the win, were all quite different than Dillon’s. The most famous (infamous?) was with DW at Richmond, but I think the 2 of them beat on each other for a while, before Earnhardt got into DW’s left rear, wrecking them both and Geoff Bodine (I think) winning. The others both involved Terry Labonte at Bristol. All I recall of the first was Labonte won spinning across the finish, but I was there in 99 for the second. With two laps to go, Labonte sent Earnhardt up the track and then door slammed him on the way by. The next lap Earnhardt paid him back and won. Unlike Dillon, Earnhardt didn’t have to wreck people to win, just seeing the black number 3 in the rear view was enough to move most drivers.