Austin Dillon Retains NASCAR Win, Stripped of Playoff Berth Following Richmond Wreckfest

Although the verdict took a day longer than expected to come down from NASCAR officials, the punishments for the mayhem at the end of Sunday night’s Cook Out 400 race at Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia, have arrived.

Austin Dillon, driver of the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) No. 3 Chevrolet that ultimately ended up in victory lane, will retain his win but will not be granted an automatic birth to the Cup Series Playoffs. In addition to being stripped of the playoff birth, Dillon and the No. 3 team were docked 25 points in both the drivers’ and the owners’ standings. The points setback drops Dillon from 26th to 31st in the drivers’ standings.

To make matters worse for RCR, Brandon Benesch, Dillon’s spotter, was also suspended for three races. In radio transmissions in the team, Benesch can be heard yelling “wreck him” to Dillon as the driver battled alongside Hamlin out of the final turn.

Meanwhile, Joey Logano was fined $50,000 for his behavior following the race, in which he spun the tires and revved his engine in front of the No. 3 pit box on the pit lane, placing multiple spectators and bystanders in serious danger momentarily.

The race in Richmond ended in mayhem after Dillon, who looked poised to cruise to a win, was overtaken at the last minute in overtime laps by Joey Logano. As the two cars battled into turn 3 on the final lap, Dillon clipped Logano from behind and spun him high into the wall. With Dillon slightly out of position, Denny Hamlin attempted to sneak through on the low side, temporarily taking the lead. In a desperate move, Dillon then drove down into Hamlin’s right rear corner, clipping Hamlin and sending him high into the wall and allowing Dillon to charge through to take the checkered flag.

The extended highlights from the race are below. If you only want to see the last lap mayhem, fast-forward to the 7:37 mark.

“I don’t know man,” Dillon said when asked about the efficacy of his late-race move. “It’s been two years. This is the first car I’ve had with a shot to win. I felt like with two to go, we were the fastest car. Obviously had to have a straightaway. Wrecked the guy. I hate to do that, but sometimes you just got to have it,” he continued.

As expected, Logano was seething mad, acting out with the little burnout on pit lane that ultimately got him the $50K fine. “It’s chicken s**t,” Logano said to NBC Sports following the mayhem. “There’s no doubt about it. He’s four car lengths back, not even close. Then he wrecks [Hamlin] to go along with it.”

“[Dillon] had no intentions to race,” he continued to reporters after the race. “I beat him fair and square on the restart and he pulls a chicken s**t move. He’s a piece of crap. He sucks. He’s sucked his whole career and now he’s going to be in the playoffs. Good for him, I guess.”

(To get a whole heap more colorful quotes from those involved in the immediate fallout, check out this post-race report from Jayski’s Silly Season Site.)

Before the night was out Sunday, NASCAR‘s senior vice president of competition, Elton Sawyer, made it clear that there would be an investigation into Dillon’s late-race antics. “Our sport has been a contact sport for a long time,” Sawyer told reporters Sunday night. “We always hear ‘Where is the line?’ and ‘Did someone cross the line?’ I would say the last lap was awful close to the line. We will take a look at all the available resources from audio to video, we’ll listen to the spotters, crew chiefs, and drivers.”

Sawyer’s team had originally planned to release a verdict on Tuesday, but the deliberations dragged on into Wednesday.

“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 in remarks accompanying the announcement from NASCAR. “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 line was crossed.”

Dillon won’t have to wait long to see if Wednesday’s punishments are the only ones he’ll receive, or if Logano, Hamlin, or perhaps another driver seeks retribution on track. NASCAR’s action continues this Sunday, August 18, at the Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan.

Grab the popcorn.