The above video ought to inform all of it. Austin Dillon deliberately drove into the again of Joey Logano to spin him for the lead in Flip 3, then right-reared Denny Hamlin coming to the road to win the Prepare dinner Out 400 at Richmond Raceway on Sunday night time.
With the win, Dillon — who was thirty second in Cup Sequence factors getting into the night time — is now locked into the playoffs … that’s, until NASCAR does the proper factor and penalizes him for reckless driving. It is extremely unlikely and can be almost unprecedented, nevertheless it’s crucial.
For years now, NASCAR has been taking part in a harmful sport with ball-and-strike calls relating to penalizing drivers for intentional wrecks. Generally you are parked, typically you are not. Generally you are suspended, typically you are not. Generally an request for forgiveness is required, typically it is not.
The one factor the sanctioning physique has been in step with is inconsistency, and it has all led to this second.
Some will say “Do not blame the participant, blame the sport” and that NASCAR’s playoff system encourages such a driving. That is an excellent argument for the truth that Dillon should not be eligible for the playoffs to start with — and up till 2022, he might not have been, as solely drivers contained in the top-30 in factors on the conclusion of the common season may qualify.
But it surely’s not a justification for Dillon’s actions. Each sport has an unwritten code of etiquette which you could’t simply do blatantly soiled stuff to win. Dillon laid full waste to that and put a number of drivers’ security in danger, all simply to qualify himself for a postseason format during which he’ll in all chance be eradicated within the first spherical of anyway.
It is also value noting that it is not the primary time Dillon has completed one thing like this. He drove straight through Austin Cindric to win at Daytona in 2022, within the common season finale.
Most famously, he wrecked Aric Almirola to win the 2018 Daytona 500, though that one can a minimum of be debated as a foul block on Almirola’s half or a minimum of laborious racing for the win gone unsuitable.
This, although, can’t. It is as bush league as bush league will get, and NASCAR should set the precedent that there is no such thing as a place for it within the sport. Dillon needs to be stripped of his win, and disqualified from the playoffs.
