Austin Dillon will keep his victory from Richmond Raceway on Sunday night but will not keep any of the perks that come with it.
In other words, he is no longer in the Cup Series playoffs after the weekly penalty report was issued on Wednesdat afternoon. After reviewing all replay footage and SMT data, the sanctioning body ruled that Dillon would not eligible for the playoffs due to violating Section 12.3.2.1.b of the NASCAR Rule Book, which deals with playoff eligibility and read as follows:
“Race finishes must be unencumbered by violation(s) of the NASCAR Rules or other action(s) detrimental to stock car auto racing or NASCAR as determined in the sole discretion of NASCAR.”
Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, said the penalties were a result of everything that happened in the final corners on the final lap.
“I think in all due respect to the appeal process, we looked at this and the totality of everything that happened as you enter Turn 3 and as the cars got to the start/finish line,” Sawyer said. “So, as we look through all of that data, we came to the conclusion that a line had been crossed. Our sport has been based going for many, many years, forever, on good, hard racing. Contact has been acceptable. We felt like, in this case, that the line was crossed.”
NASCAR also suspended Brandon Benesch, the spotter for Dillon and the No. 3 for the remainder of the regular season due to radio transmissions uncovered immediately after the race. Benesch shouted ‘wreck him’ after Dillon crashed Logano in Turn 3 with Hamlin driving under both and took the lead.
Dillon then made a hard left turn into Hamlin, crashing the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11, in order to cross the finish line first.
Joey Logano was also issued a $50,000 fine for throttling up on pit road, with industry members all around him, in a show of protest as he drove by the Richard Childress Racing No. 3 pit stall. He was immediately rebuked by officials as he climbed from the car.