The above video should tell it all. Austin Dillon intentionally drove into the back of Joey Logano to spin him for the lead in Turn 3, then right-reared Denny Hamlin coming to the line to win the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway on Sunday night.
With the win, Dillon — who was 32nd in Cup Series points entering the night — is now locked into the playoffs … that is, unless NASCAR does the right thing and penalizes him for reckless driving. It’s highly unlikely and would be nearly unprecedented, but it’s necessary.
For years now, NASCAR has been playing a dangerous game with ball-and-strike calls when it comes to penalizing drivers for intentional wrecks. Sometimes you’re parked, sometimes you’re not. Sometimes you’re suspended, sometimes you’re not. Sometimes an admission of guilt is required, sometimes it’s not.
The only thing the sanctioning body has been consistent with is inconsistency, and it has all led to this moment.
Some will say “Don’t blame the player, blame the game” and that NASCAR’s playoff system encourages this type of driving. That’s a good argument for the fact that Dillon shouldn’t be eligible for the playoffs to begin with — and up until 2022, he may not have been, as only drivers inside the top-30 in points at the conclusion of the regular season could qualify.
But it’s not a justification for Dillon’s actions. Every sport has an unwritten code of etiquette that you can’t just do blatantly dirty stuff to win. Dillon laid complete waste to that and put multiple drivers’ safety at risk, all just to qualify himself for a postseason format in which he will in all likelihood be eliminated in the first round of anyway.
It’s also worth noting that it’s not the first time Dillon has done something like this. He drove straight through Austin Cindric to win at Daytona in 2022, in the regular season finale.
Most famously, he wrecked Aric Almirola to win the 2018 Daytona 500, although that one can at least be debated as a bad block on Almirola’s part or at least hard racing for the win gone wrong.
This, though, cannot. It’s as bush league as bush league gets, and NASCAR must set the precedent that there is no place for it in the sport. Dillon should be stripped of his win, and disqualified from the playoffs.
