It took a little while but NASCAR has finally come out with its penalties for the Cup Series race at Richmond. Austin Dillon was awarded the race win but took away his spot in the playoffs and docked 25 points. Joey Logano was fined $50,000 for his pit road antics. Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes that the sanctioning body made the correct decision but it has done nothing to separate right from wrong.
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Speaking on a recent episode of his podcast, the NASCAR veteran stated that he did not have any problem with the penalty levied on Dillon. Junior believes that it is okay for a driver to run up to another’s bumper and push them up the track to win a race. However, in Dillon’s case, it was far too blatant as he came from a long way back and had no intention of making the corner. But the difference between a clean and a dirty move is interpreted differently by different people as per the 49-year-old.
“It’s not anymore defined today, it’s not anymore defined after this ruling,” he explained. “Everybody has a different interpretation just like the league itself in the booth. Each race director has a different interpretation of what he’s seeing on the racetrack and when he sees a driver do something incorrectly or against the rules. All of this is kind of a giant gray area.”
Junior hopes that this ruling helps drivers understand how to race within the rules as aggressively as possible. There have been incidents of that kind of driving in the lower divisions of NASCAR since last season. This is the first time it has happened in the Cup Series and the sanctioning body did what it felt was fair.
Junior supports NASCAR taking time to pass verdict on Richmond race
They did take some time to make that decision and not a lot of people were happy about it. Several eminent insiders slammed NASCAR for not making a quick decision about such a big incident. Kenny Wallace was one such individual. But as far as Wallace’s good friend Junior is concerned, the organizers made the correct choice by taking their time and not rushing their verdict.
“You get as many people in the room to try to determine…what are some of the negative that could happen? How could this open up a can of worms going forward? So I think it’s wise for them to take their time to make sure they get it right instead of trying to rush to the decision that they believe the public demands,” he said.
It seems like most fans are okay with NASCAR’s decision to not take away the race win but deny him the playoff spot. It will be interesting to see how the action unfolds on the track in the remaining races this season.
