Sunday’s Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway was certainly one to remember.
There wasn’t one single driver who dominated the race by leading hundreds of laps on his way to victory lane. There wasn’t a massive sold-out crowd there to witness it (in fact, the crowd looked uncharacteristically small).
What it did have, however, was a driver in 32nd place in the points standings doing whatever it took to win.
Austin Dillon had a very strong race, staying near the front of the pack for what felt like the large majority of the 400-lap spectacle. He held the lead for most of the final 25 laps until a caution on lap 397 forced the race into overtime, resetting the field and gearing up for a two-lap sprint with two-time champion Joey Logano on his right.
Logano had a great restart while Dillon continued to struggle with that aspect of his racing skills. The 22-car jumped out to a good lead heading down the backstretch and taking the white flag. It looked like Logano was going to cruise to a big win, stealing playoff hopes from Dillon.
However, into turn 3 on the final lap, Dillon drove deep into the corner, making contact with the back of Logano’s bumper, spinning him into the wall. In the process, Denny Hamlin took the lead away and was going to be in the right place at the right time until Dillon collided with the front of his car into Hamlin and sent him into the wall, leading to Dillon picking up the win and jumping 20 spots in the standings to secure a playoff spot.
It was a moment that people raved about, reminiscent of the old style of NASCAR where “rubbin is racing” was a commonly used phrase. Many remember the all-black #3 of the greatest of all time, Dale Earnhardt Sr, doing whatever it took to win at times, including spinning people on the final lap. It’s an aspect of stock car racing that honestly should be more involved.
The TV ratings prove that as well.
The Cook Out 400 in Richmond was up against the Olympic Closing Ceremonies, which also aired on the NBC family of networks, and the NASCAR race finished the week as the most-watched non-Olympics sporting event with 2.22 million viewers.
The incident went viral on social media and created such a buzz around the sport as opinions came from each end of the spectrum: it was a dirty move or it’s a fun part of racing that should be more relevant.
Here’s another issue many people have, myself included: NASCAR promotes winning at all costs with their current format of locking yourself into the Playoffs with a race win. If any driver was in the exact same scenario Dillon was in, I feel like you’d be hard pressed to find a driver that wouldn’t do the same exact thing to get the win because that’s what NASCAR is essentially telling people to do.
However, things took a very sour turn on Wednesday when NASCAR announced that Dillon’s win would not count towards playoff eligibility due to him violating NASCAR’s rules.
Section 12.3.2.1.b of the NASCAR Rules states: “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, had this to say about the incidient.
“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.”
However, when Logano pulled a similar move two years ago against William Byron at Darlington, nothing was done by NASCAR then? Not to mention that Hamlin has made contact and toed the line with several other drives in the past.
It truly feels like this was a move by NASCAR to stop two of its biggest faces of being on the wrong end of a situation and in turn, they have created a dangerous precedent that says if you’re not one of the big faces and big money makers, you will not get the benefit. But if you’re in with the “men in suits”, you don’t have to worry about it.
It could’ve been a great moment for NASCAR to somewhat bring back the aggressive style of stock car racing that made the sport so popular to begin with, but instead they’ve tarnished the moment completely.
Matt Miguez is the host of the Miguez Mindset Podcast on ESPN Southwest Louisiana’s YouTube channel. He is also a digital contributor to ESPN 103.7 Lafayette and 104.1 Lake Charles.