Some of NASCAR's attraction is, of course, what results from drivers interacting on a course. Although door-slamming is thrilling, the sport's full-contact character clearly has great potential to give way to deliberate destruction. While some of behavior is generally usually viewed as reasonable in stock car racing, every race would finish with a crash up front if such wrecking were allowed uncontrolled. Usually, drivers have left the line for them to determine; on Sunday, NASCAR finally faced a finish bad enough that the series had to call the line itself.
Actually, the finale included two separate, terrible crashes. Leading the most of the day's last run at Richmond Raceway and in line to win when an accident farther back in the field prompted a restart, Austin Dillon found himself in second heading into the closing turns. When the leader slowed for turn three, he was more than just a full car length behind Joey Logano; he closed the distance fast by merely running into Logano's rear bumper. Third-place Denny Hamlin overtook Dillon momentarily inside following Logano's incident. Dillon swiped down the track and spun Hamlin hard into the outside wall as Hamlin returned up near the racing line on the exit of turn 4.
For his part, Dillon claimed to have intended to strike Logano's No. 22 but said of the impact he made on Hamlin's No. 11, "just whatever my body did." In subsequent post-race comments, he said that the first contact was meant to "get the 22 loose" and the second was merely reaction, two responses that stand out in that they are not Dillon labeling either a purposeful wrecking. In last two seasons, NASCAR has penalized two drivers a race each for what the series judged to be deliberate collisions.
If the hits were deliberate, as they most clearly seem to be, a championship structure meant to reward hurry might perhaps help to somewhat explain Dillon's thinking. His only path to a playoff place was a victory since he was seated a far-off 32nd in the driver's championship. Even eking out a last-place finish in NASCAR's win-and-get-in postseason, Dillon would have vaulted right up to a guaranteed 16th-place finish in the series standings. The playoffs are meant to foster a winner-take-all mindset, hence the Richmond finish is the expected result of a system that honors victory regardless of the circumstances.
Read Also: Reactions to Austin Dillon's Penalty in NASCAR
That reality makes both hits more of a competition choice than an emotional reaction, but these kinds of things do not happen every week. Every single regular-season race follows the identical guidelines of risk and return, although the great majority of races do not finish in several final-corner collisions planned by the same driver. Many drivers, including Hamlin and Logano, have historically won races by striking the driver in front of them. They haven't taken out two opponents in the same set of corners back to back.
Should NASCAR have let what Dillon did unpunished, the metagame of winning a Cup Series race would have shifted. A worse verdict would have established a precedent wherein teams would be forfeiting a competitive advantage if they ever finished a race without wrecking the leading driver. A playoff place can be seized by force once a driver loses the lead on track not once but twice.
NASCAR had to determine either there was no boundary at all or put the line someplace. At last, on Wednesday the show crossed that line. Although Dillon was let to retain his win, he was given a 25-point penalty and lost the playoff-qualifying advantage to his win. That means the winner fans saw crowned on Sunday night is the winner that will go down in the record books; but, the championship award for the triumph has been removed.
Senior vice president of competition at NASCAR and frequent voice of the sanctioning body Elton Sawyer claimed that NASCAR "came to the opinion that a line had been crossed. For many, many years, always, our sport has been centered on solid, hard racing. Contact has been approved. Here, we felt as though the border had been crossed."
Running Dillon's No. 3 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing said in a brief comment on social media that it was "very disappointed" in the outcome. The team also declared intentions to challenge the ruling in the same comment.
The series has essentially created a precedent whereby destroying two separate drivers for a playoff berth is unacceptable by deciding that Dillon broke its playoff eligibility criteria with his actions. That is a reasonable, if modest, benchmark for the direction of the sport. If a driver obviously ruins only one racer for a playoff-qualifying win in the future, NASCAR will undoubtedly confront these same issues; for now, the series has closed a loophole allowing a driver to quickly make their season successful by eliminating several rivals.
Mercado Wolski
Some of NASCAR's attraction is, of course, what results from drivers interacting on a course. Although door-slamming is thrilling, the sport's full-contact character clearly has great potential to give way to deliberate destruction. While some of behavior is generally usually viewed as reasonable in stock car racing, every race would finish with a crash up front if such wrecking were allowed uncontrolled. Usually, drivers have left the line for them to determine; on Sunday, NASCAR finally faced a finish bad enough that the series had to call the line itself.
Actually, the finale included two separate, terrible crashes. Leading the most of the day's last run at Richmond Raceway and in line to win when an accident farther back in the field prompted a restart, Austin Dillon found himself in second heading into the closing turns. When the leader slowed for turn three, he was more than just a full car length behind Joey Logano; he closed the distance fast by merely running into Logano's rear bumper. Third-place Denny Hamlin overtook Dillon momentarily inside following Logano's incident. Dillon swiped down the track and spun Hamlin hard into the outside wall as Hamlin returned up near the racing line on the exit of turn 4.
For his part, Dillon claimed to have intended to strike Logano's No. 22 but said of the impact he made on Hamlin's No. 11, "just whatever my body did." In subsequent post-race comments, he said that the first contact was meant to "get the 22 loose" and the second was merely reaction, two responses that stand out in that they are not Dillon labeling either a purposeful wrecking. In last two seasons, NASCAR has penalized two drivers a race each for what the series judged to be deliberate collisions.
If the hits were deliberate, as they most clearly seem to be, a championship structure meant to reward hurry might perhaps help to somewhat explain Dillon's thinking. His only path to a playoff place was a victory since he was seated a far-off 32nd in the driver's championship. Even eking out a last-place finish in NASCAR's win-and-get-in postseason, Dillon would have vaulted right up to a guaranteed 16th-place finish in the series standings. The playoffs are meant to foster a winner-take-all mindset, hence the Richmond finish is the expected result of a system that honors victory regardless of the circumstances.
Read Also: Reactions to Austin Dillon's Penalty in NASCAR
That reality makes both hits more of a competition choice than an emotional reaction, but these kinds of things do not happen every week. Every single regular-season race follows the identical guidelines of risk and return, although the great majority of races do not finish in several final-corner collisions planned by the same driver. Many drivers, including Hamlin and Logano, have historically won races by striking the driver in front of them. They haven't taken out two opponents in the same set of corners back to back.
Should NASCAR have let what Dillon did unpunished, the metagame of winning a Cup Series race would have shifted. A worse verdict would have established a precedent wherein teams would be forfeiting a competitive advantage if they ever finished a race without wrecking the leading driver. A playoff place can be seized by force once a driver loses the lead on track not once but twice.
NASCAR had to determine either there was no boundary at all or put the line someplace. At last, on Wednesday the show crossed that line. Although Dillon was let to retain his win, he was given a 25-point penalty and lost the playoff-qualifying advantage to his win. That means the winner fans saw crowned on Sunday night is the winner that will go down in the record books; but, the championship award for the triumph has been removed.
Senior vice president of competition at NASCAR and frequent voice of the sanctioning body Elton Sawyer claimed that NASCAR "came to the opinion that a line had been crossed. For many, many years, always, our sport has been centered on solid, hard racing. Contact has been approved. Here, we felt as though the border had been crossed."
Running Dillon's No. 3 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing said in a brief comment on social media that it was "very disappointed" in the outcome. The team also declared intentions to challenge the ruling in the same comment.
The series has essentially created a precedent whereby destroying two separate drivers for a playoff berth is unacceptable by deciding that Dillon broke its playoff eligibility criteria with his actions. That is a reasonable, if modest, benchmark for the direction of the sport. If a driver obviously ruins only one racer for a playoff-qualifying win in the future, NASCAR will undoubtedly confront these same issues; for now, the series has closed a loophole allowing a driver to quickly make their season successful by eliminating several rivals.