Austin Dillon’s victory at the Richmond Raceway was controversial and NASCAR was not going to stand for it. The sanctioning body did not take away the win but stripped the Richard Childress Racing driver of his playoff spot and docked 25 points.
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The #3 team has filed an appeal, the result of which will come out on Wednesday. While Dillon might hope to get his playoff spot reinstated, former Cup Series driver Kevin Harvick doesn’t believe that will be the case.
Speaking on a recent episode of his podcast, the racing veteran acknowledged that there have only been a few instances where NASCAR has overturned its decisions after an appeal. In Dillon’s case, it’s a lot tougher since the safety of drivers is involved.
Harvick doesn’t believe that the #3’s contact with Joey Logano was the issue at the end of the Richmond race. Instead, it was the second incident with Denny Hamlin, which the sanctioning body took issue with.
“That’s gonna be a tough one to win an appeal,” he said. “I think they’ve finally drawn a line in the sand because of all the injuries and the things that we have seen with this car. We see the impact that Denny Hamlin took, we’ve seen two drivers get suspended for these right-rear hooks and I just don’t think we can take it any further.”
Dillon accuses Hamlin and Logano of similar antics
There is little debate that the #3 driver was reckless at Richmond. However, the people he took out have also been accused of similar antics in the past and neither of them received such a hefty penalty for it. In an earlier media interaction, the RCR star explained how Logano and Hamlin have also been overly aggressive in the past to take home a race victory.
“I’ve seen Denny and Joey make moves that have been running people up the track to win,” he explained. “To me, I’ve seen a lot of stuff over the years in NASCAR where people move people. It’s just part of our sport. You know what I mean? Remember when Joey said ‘short-track racing.’ He knows what it was.”
There’s nothing much Dillon can do anymore apart from getting his head down and focusing on the races in front of him.
