Dillon gets to keep the win, but as far as greater implications are concerned, it is all but meaningless. It will not count toward the playoffs, meaning if he is to qualify, he must win one of the next three races (Michigan, Daytona or Darlington).
Furthermore, he and his No. 3 team have been docked 25 championship points while spotter Brandon Benesch is suspended for the remainder of the regular season. Benesch could be heard yelling “Wreck him!” to Dillon on team radio immediately before he hooked Denny Hamlin into the wall coming to the line.
Finally, Joey Logano, who Dillon spun in Turn 3 before walling Hamlin, is fined $50,000 for unsafe behavior on pit road after the race in which he intentionally smoked his tires while Dillon’s crew was walking past.
Ideally, one would have hoped for NASCAR to totally drop the hammer with either a suspension to Dillon, revoking the win entirely or both. However realistically, this is about the best one could ask for, and the precedent it sets is simple: a spot in the “win and you’re in” playoff format must be earned fair-in-square.
It’s not the first time NASCAR has disallowed a win from counting towards the playoffs. In fact, ironically, one notable previous instance involved Logano, at this same track. In 2017, Logano won the spring Richmond race but his car failed post-race inspection, so his win was “encumbered” and he was forced back to the drawing board. He ended up stunningly missing the playoffs that season.
That ruling along with others around the same time prompted NASCAR to eventually begin outright disqualifying drivers due to technical infractions beginning in 2019 (though Hamlin at Pocono in 2022 remains the only case in which that has come into effect). It is, though, an unprecedented penalty for a driver to lose his playoff eligibility due to on-track actions.
It’s a necessary one, though, and a line in the sand has now been drawn. One can only hope that this discourages any other drivers from attempting to win the way Dillon did on Sunday, and should they, they will face the same consequences.
