The one idea that every driver on the field was confident about after the Austin Dillon fiasco on Sunday night was that NASCAR wasn’t going to penalize him for it. He wrecked Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin yards before the finish line to secure the victory for himself. Now, the officiating body will be making its final call on Tuesday. But what would it mean if it chooses to let Dillon walk?
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Undeniably, an extremely bad example would be set. The lessons from the Cup Series trickle down to the very grassroots of racing. And the thousands of young drivers and fans who are watching the sport will be influenced to think that they could get away with such brash moves. This is precisely what 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick is worried about too.
“I’m worried about what this does for the young kids watching the sport. My kid is watching the sport,” he vented out on SiriusXM. “My kid thinks it’s okay because NASCAR thinks it’s okay. I had to explain to him what happened was not okay. That’s the crazy precedent they’re setting.” He continued to express that he had to make four-year-old Beau understand that right-hooking someone wasn’t right.
The other valid question he had was that if what happened at Richmond was okay, why would it not be okay at Phoenix to win the championship this way? The notion that a champion could intentionally wreck a fellow contender to grab the title doesn’t sit well with Reddick. Nor does it with the racing community. It awaits NASCAR’s decision and potential policy changes soon.
Was Dillon’s wreck on Hamlin intentional?
Coming through Turn 3 in the final lap of the 400-lap race, Dillon overdrove and crashed into Logano from multiple car lengths back. Riveting off the back of the No. 22 Ford Mustang, he struggled for control and right-hooked Denny Hamlin. As things stand, it is complex to say for sure that the move was intentional. But the messages on Dillon’s radio make it easy to prove that it was so.
Dillon’s spotter can be heard yelling on the footage procured from the No. 3 car, “Wreck him! Wreck him!”, right before the contact with Hamlin. His grandfather and team owner, Richard Childress, soon pitched in with, “Pop pop is proud of you.”
It is now up to Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s Senior VP of Competition, and his team of officials to set the scales in balance.
