Joey Logano called it “chickenshit.”
He’s not wrong. But Austin Dillon does not care about Logano’s feelings. And he does not care about Denny Hamlin’s feelings.
He also does not care about what anyone else has to say about his reckless move to win at Richmond Raceway on Sunday night.
He cares about putting his team in the NASCAR Playoffs. And that’s what he did — in controversial fashion.
Dillon was cruising to an unexpected win until Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Preece crashed in front of him with two laps to go. Dillon maintained the lead after a round of pit stops by the field and was the control car for the final restart.
Logano started on the outside of Dillon, beat him to the lead, and it looked like he would go on to win the Cook Out 400, with Dillon settling for second.
Out of desperation to save his horrid season and make himself a playoff driver, Dillon dumped Logano in the final turn coming to the checkered flag and wiped out Hamlin, too, as he was sneaking to the bottom of the track to avoid the melee.
Several thoughts:
1) Dillon’s move was dirty. He plowed through Logano from several car lengths back to take back the lead.
2) He doubled down on the dirtiness when he right-hooked Hamlin, who looked like he was going to come out of Turn 4 with the lead and the eventual win.
3) Dillon, who was 32nd in the standings and desperately needed a win to make the playoffs, felt he had no choice. He needed to put Richard Childress Racing in championship contention, and he accomplished that goal. Dillon will be one of the 16 drivers going for the title, albeit with an enormous target that Hamlin and Logano might be aiming for on his back.
4) NASCAR is partially to blame for what happened as the field came to the checkered flag. It created this emphasis on victories before the 2014 season with the win-and-you’re-in style championship format, and one of its negative consequences is that drivers act a little batty when they can sniff a trophy. If this had happened in 2013 or earlier, Dillon’s desperation move would almost certainly not have happened.
5) Now, NASCAR has to consider whether or not to reprimand Dillon. It probably won’t, but if this type of racing continues and someone gets hurt, then NASCAR’s hands-off philosophy will have to go the wayside to protect drivers from themselves.
6) Young, aspiring drivers will see what Dillon did and think that is OK because it happened at the top level of stock car racing. Just no. No, no, no.
The noble thing for Dillon to have done would have been to accept defeat and finish second. The respect from his competitors would have remained intact, but he wouldn’t be in the playoffs then. He obviously felt being in the postseason was more important in the heat of the moment, and that’s why he made that egregious move.
On the other hand, Dillon has a team that depends on him every Sunday. He has sponsors that pay a lot of money to support him. And he has fans who root for him. He took the do-whatever-it-takes-to-win mentality to the max and got the badly needed victory.
“It’s obviously foul, but it is fair in NASCAR,” Hamlin said. “It is a different league. There are no penalties for rough driving or anything like that, so it opens up the opportunity for Austin to just do whatever he wants.”
Hamlin isn’t wrong. There are no race stewards in NASCAR like in open-wheel racing and most other motorsport leagues. And since that’s the case, NASCAR will get moments like it did on the final lap on Sunday night.
“Absolutely, a line was crossed, but it is an invisible line, and it is not defined. They have rules and provisions for stuff like this, but they never take action for it,” Hamlin continued. “What happens is you see young guys coming up in the short track ranks, seeing that, and they think it is fine.
“That is why we see some of the lower series turn out the way they do in these green-white-checkered situations because some of the best that they are seeing on Sunday do stuff like that. Who am I to throw stones at a glass house, but I’ve certainly never won one that way.”
Again, Hamlin isn’t wrong. Dillon might be penalized for his actions at short tracks across the country. But NASCAR in this elimination-style playoff era is the “wild, wild West,” as Hamlin once put it nine years ago, and drivers have the luxury of policing themselves and not worrying about what NASCAR race officials think.
“I knew it was going to be wild, and coming to the last corner, I just had to go for it. It was our opportunity; you don’t get many of those, and that is what our partners, my family, and RCR want us to do: go and try to win,” Dillon said. “So, I just had to send it.”
If Dillon’s move were retaliation or something to that effect, NASCAR would likely penalize him. But since it was for a race win, and drivers have had the win-at-all-costs mentality for the last decade, NASCAR just has to sit and take it … for now, at least.
But it’s become increasingly evident that wrecking drivers and stealing wins away is OK. Well, it’s OK only until someone gets hurt. Maybe then will NASCAR realize that it needs to officiate intentional contact with a tighter fist. Right now, the sanctioning body has less grip on it than an oily hand holding a bar of soap.
According to the rulebook, Dillon did nothing wrong. That’s the problem, though. Just about any other racing series in the world would not have allowed that to happen.
If you’re mad at Dillon, it’s 100% understandable. But also keep in mind that you don’t hate the player; you hate the game.
Well. If it’s going to be supported by NASCAR, then, the drivers need to understand that if it’s no holds barred, then it needs to be no holds barred for every driver. You would think, the folks running NASCAR would not like to promote a sport built on crappy moves. But. Then again. The blocking incident at Daytona, obviously never sunk in. Lack of law enriches lack of discipline. I suppose being spineless is ok, as long as your spine is not in the car spinning out. Very disgusting racing. Competitive? Where? In the garage? The sponsors should all make NASCAR clean this up. Unless. NASCAR wants to pay to field the cars. Then, it’s ok. But, if my money, was backing Joeys car after this? I would at least, show NASCAR, what would happen, if the money wasn’t there. Spectators pay. Sponsors pay. And. If this is what racing is supposed to be? I want no part of it. Wrecking to win, is not racing. And if Richard Childress would have learned from the ending of that great legacy, he would not support endangering, any lives on the track. I guess it’s who you are. When you are a grandson, who has won anyway possible. Even, if he knew it was no exactly sporting. Sad day at Richmond. Very sad. I also think the management of the tracks, should press nascar to clean it up. Crashes can kill. It should not be welcomed or supported. It will kill the sport.
This is the major reason that I rarely watch a race any more. I used to attend at least 3 races a year button we don’t bother to go. I don’t like the quality of racing and I don’t like the lack of sportsmanship. It doesn’t take talent to wreck people. There will be no repercussions for this unfortunately. Gimmicks like they have been using won’t fix the problem. Good rules and enforcing them may help but what do I know?