NASCAR Making The Right Call

By: Derek Pierce

Last Sunday's race at Richmond Raceway was won by Austin Dillon in the most controversial way this season. Having the race nearly locked up with two laps to go, a caution came out to go into overtime. On the overtime restart, Joey Logano gained the advantage over Dillon heading out of Turn 2. Heading into Turn 3 on the last lap, Logano had about 1.5 car lengths on Dillon. That was until Dillon sent it into the corner, hitting Logano and sending him spinning. After getting around Logano, Dillon had yet another driver to worry about. Denny Hamlin was able to hold his line and get alongside of Dillon. If both cars stayed straight, Hamlin would've won the drag race to the finish line. However, Hamlin was turned across the nose of Dillon which gave Dillon the ability to win the race.

After the race was over and cars were heading to pit road Logano decided to express his frustration. He spun his tires down a good chunk of the pit lane while officials and family members of the #3 team were on pit road. Watching the onboard camera, it's very clear that Logano had gotten very close to actually hitting a few of these people.

After three days of social media outrage, discussions, and questioning about what NASCAR will do about these situations, they finally came out with the penalty report on Wednesday. The result of this was an encumbering of Austin Dillon's win, a points penalty, a suspended spotter, and a fine for Logano.

Dillon's encumbered win means that it does not count towards playoff eligibility. Since he is outside of the top 16 in points, Dillon is no longer in the playoff picture. The official rule stated by NASCAR for this is from the playoff eligibility section stating, "Race finishes must be unencumbered by violation(s) of the NASCAR Rules or other action(s) detrimental to stock car auto racing or NASCAR as determined in the sole discretion of NASCAR." Essentially NASCAR is stating that the way Dillon won the race was through actions they find are detrimental to the sport which is why they encumbered it. Additionally he was docked 25 driver and owner points. Ultimately this puts him 31st in the point standings. The final penalty for the #3 team was a three race suspension for spotter Brandon Benesch after it was revealed he told Dillon over the radio, "Wreck him" when Hamlin was getting side by side with Dillon. 

Richard Childress Racing has released a statement that they will be appealing the penalty. The big picture is that the enforcement of the penalty is now out of the hands of NASCAR and is now up to the appeals panel. I don't think that the panel will overturn this, however it wouldn't be the weirdest decision they have made. If it is overturned, it's clear that it will be against the wishes of NASCAR and will have tons of implications on not only the playoffs but also the rulebook.

The last penalty handed out was a $50k fine to Joey Logano for his unsafe actions on pit road. This is consistent with other penalties handed out for unsafe actions on the cool down lap and is very fair. While there shouldn't have been nonofficials on pit road while cars are moving, he was still getting close to hitting officials and there may be a rule change to protect form this, it's a deserved penalty and should've never happened.