Austin Dillon's Richmond win won't count toward NASCAR playoff eligibility

Austin Dillon will be allowed to keep his controversial win, but it will not count toward playoff eligibility, NASCAR announced Wednesday after days of contemplating whether the Richard Childress Racing driver should be punished for intentionally wrecking the first- and third-place cars on the final lap Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series at Richmond Raceway.

In addition to stripping Dillon’s playoff eligibility — although he’ll still be credited with the victory, the fifth of his career — NASCAR docked him and RCR 25 driver and owner points, fined Joey Logano $50,000 for careless driving on pit road after the race for spinning his tires near Dillon’s team to display his frustration and suspended Brandon Benesch, Dillon’s spotter, three races for encouraging Dillon to wreck Logano and Denny Hamlin.

The decision to punish a driver for winning a race for using overly aggressive tactics is a departure from how NASCAR typically handles such situations. In this instance, however, officials were compelled by the Dillon slamming into leader Joey Logano’s car and then turning left and hooking the right-rear of third-place Denny Hamlin car thereby allowing him to take the win. Dillon was running second at the time and in a “must-win” position to qualify for the playoffs with only four regular season races remaining

Both Logano and Hamlin adamantly called on NASCAR night to penalize Dillon.

“Absolutely a line was crossed, but it’s an invisible line,” Hamlin said on Sunday night. “It’s not defined. I mean, they have rules and provisions for stuff like this, but they never take action for it.”

Officials initially declared Dillon the winner, then later Sunday night said they would review the incident to determine whether any penalties would be issued, saying their decision would come later in the week.

Joey Logano was fined $50,000 for careless driving on pit road on Sunday. (Peter Casey / USA Today)

“The last lap was awfully close to the line,” said Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition. “We’ll take a look at all the available resources from audio to video; we’ll listen to spotters, crew chiefs and drivers. If anything rises to a level that we think we need to penalize, we’ll do that on Tuesday.

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

That NASCAR’s deliberations took until late Wednesday afternoon speaks to the unprecedented nature of this incident.

Aggressive driving long has been NASCAR’s hallmark, especially in the closing laps of a Cup race where a win is at stake. Typically, officials have largely let drivers race how they best see fit, and in only rare instances has a driver been stripped of a win due to overly aggressive driving. The last time occurred in 1991 when Ricky Rudd was penalized for spinning race-leader Davey Allison on the final lap at Sonoma. Rudd was moved to second while Allison was credited with the win.

The code among drivers of what’s acceptable and what’s not has been hotly debated in recent years, with many veterans decrying how the younger drivers are less restrained. Such intensity has only heightened since Cup moved to a knockout playoff format in 2014 where a win during the regular season effectively qualifies a driver for the 10-race playoffs.

GO DEEPER

Austin Dillon wins NASCAR Cup Series race after crashing 2 drivers

Dillon entered Richmond buried in points (32nd) to such a degree that his only means of making the playoffs was to win one of the four remaining regular-season races. And he was in position to do just that before a caution with two regulation laps remaining, erasing his comfortable lead and setting up an overtime finish.

But on the subsequent restart, Logano got the jump on Dillon and built up enough of a gap that a sense of desperation set in for Dillon and the No. 3 RCR team, which radioed their driver to do whatever it took to pass Logano.

“It’s just the rules of the sport, right?” Dillon said on Sunday night. “It is what it is. Wins get you into the next round. I did what I had to do to cross the start-finish line first.

“I’ve seen Denny and Joey make moves that have been running people up the track to win. This is the first opportunity in two years for me to be able to get a win. I drove in there and kept all four tires turning across the start-finish line. To me, I’ve seen a lot of stuff over the years in NASCAR where people move people. It’s just part of our sport. Remember when Joey said ‘short-track racing.’ He knows what it was.”
Dillon’s removal from playoffs bumps Chris Buescher above the provisional cut line to make the 16-driver field. Buescher is in a tie with Ross Chastain for the final transfer spot with three races remaining, but he holds the tiebreaker based on best finish. Buescher’s best result is a second; Chastain’s is fourth.

(Top photo by Sean Gardner / Getty Images)