Never Stop Driving #110: NASCAR Drama
I wish I could have been in NASCAR’s executive boardroom when CEO Jim France and other series honchos debated how to handle the fallout from last Sunday’s controversial race finish at Richmond Raceway. In case you missed it: On the final turn of the last lap, driver Austin Dillon blatantly crashed two other cars out of contention to net his first win of the season.
The outrage machine immediately hit overdrive. “It’s chickensh*&, no doubt about it,” fumed Joey Logano, one of the drivers forced into the wall.
NASCAR deliberated for three days before ruling that Dillon’s win could stand but wouldn’t count toward playoff qualification. It also docked him 25 points, knocking him back in the standings.
Is that really a suitable punishment for endangering fellow drivers? Well, it’s complicated. You have to first take into account the broader culture of NASCAR. “Absolutely a line was crossed, but it’s an invisible line,” noted the usually pugnacious Denny Hamlin, the second driver hit. (Hamlin said that he re-injured a chronically problematic shoulder.)
“Rubbin’ is racing” is a long and tired trope that NASCAR embraces. “Our sport has been a contact sport for a long time,” commented Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior VP of Competition. The unwritten rule is that the drivers police the field. Take a guy out and he or she might do the same to you. That imperfect system holds until a driver with nothing to lose, like Dillon, arrives. Winning a race was his only chance to make the lucrative NASCAR playoffs, and at Richmond he was closer than he’d been all season. Like the founding father Alexandar Hamilton in the play Hamilton, Dillon must have told himself, “I am not throwing away my shot.”
NASCAR fans also have a long history of reveling in the rough and tumble aspects of racing. Check out Tom Wolfe’s brilliant 1965 profile of Junior Johnson. Or Virginia State Senator James Webb’s book Born Fighting, How the Scots-Irish Shaped America, which delves into the unique culture of the southeast, NASCAR’s birthplace. (The magazine editor in me marvels at Wolfe’s piece. It’s the sort of epic undertaking that we strive to present today. If you know of any writers capable of crafting something similar, please name them in the comments. And if you’d like to support our efforts, please join the Hagerty Drivers Club.)
Another complication here is that Dillon was born into NASCAR royalty: He’s the grandson of team owner Richard Childress and drives a car with the same number (three) flown by Dale Earnhardt. Dillon isn’t fighting for a job like many other drivers. NASCAR, however, is full of generational drivers like Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Chase Elliot. And, of course, CEO Jim France is the son of the series’ founder. The grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs, Ty, is often resented for his silver spoon while other legacy drivers, like Dale Jr, are worshiped. Dillon’s reputation is closer to Gibbs’ than Earnhardt’s, so there’s plenty of fan vitriol over his win.
Personally, I don’t take issue with Dillon’s behavior—it was undoubtedly an incredibly dirty move, but he was playing in the sandbox NASCAR created. My real problem is with NASCAR’s lax rules policy and enforcement. My experience with local oval racing, the kind of tracks where future NASCAR drivers cut their teeth, taught me that the feeder series mimic NASCAR and that it’s a problem. Last year I wrote about tracks closing because the racers and spectators act like jerks. I want more folks hosting and participating in motorsports events, not fewer. Hamlin mentioned this issue when he said, “What happens is you see young guys coming up in the short track ranks seeing that, and they think it’s fine.”
Considering all that, NASCAR’s partial penalty seems light. It needed not only to deal with this incident but to set a precedent, something that would deter such potentially injurious behavior in the future. Childress Racing, by the way, said it will appeal the ruling.
Like most things in life, the middle ground is where it’s at. I’m no fan of the heavy rules blanket of F1 and its frequent driver tattletales. That seems beneath the feats those drivers perform. Yet NASCAR is too loose.
The controversy comes when NASCAR is at a crossroads. This is the last year of the so-called “Charter agreement” that gave teams a temporary franchise. In F1 and many stick-and-ball sports, powerful franchises are worth billions and their owners, to varying degrees, call the shots. In NASCAR, team ownership is more like a loan; after a certain number of years, the franchise simply expires. The teams, naturally, want a new deal, one that’s closer to the permanent franchise system of other professional sports. Jeff Gordon said Hendricks Motorsports hasn’t made a profit in ten years. Share the TV money, the teams say, and let us pull together to elevate NASCAR and build franchises that can be sold. (Denny Hamlin owns a team with basketball legend Michael Jordan and frequently discusses the interesting financial aspects on the podcast Actions Detrimental.)
NASCAR seems reluctant to share power—and who wouldn’t be? The existing model has worked for decades, and it certainly has worked for the France family, which is reportedly worth billions.
The landscape, however, is changing. Competition for eyeballs is getting fiercer, and series are getting more ambitious. Formula 1, for instance, bought 40 acres of land in Las Vegas and is hosting that race, a job the company used to leave to local promotors who would pay a fee to F1 but then keep all ticket and advertising revenue. The CEO of Liberty Media, which owns F1, explained the evolution here. F1 also produces its own media, which means it’s squeezed out the pesky and sometimes critical independents. F1’s media has the best—often exclusive—access to drivers and teams, which attracts more eyeballs. While I’m no fan of F1’s media model, I imagine that every sporting league is watching it.
Both the culture and the business of NASCAR are contributing to the fallout around the race at Richmond. I wasn’t watching Sunday’s NASCAR race when Dillon speared Logano. My 15-year-old son was, however, and his screams from our basement induced me to watch with him. I asked my kid what NASCAR should do with Dillon. He shrugged and said, “It doesn’t matter what they do. They’ll be playing that finish on their social channels for months.”
Let’s go back to my imagined NASCAR boardroom. I thought there might be fierce, earnest debate within NASCAR over how to handle the Dillon finish. How naive. They were probably high-fiving. While the grandstands were sparsely attended, everyone is talking about NASCAR this week, including yours truly. They’ve won the eyeball contest, at least for now. If there’s a risk for NASCAR, it’s from the sponsoring companies, who are likely asking themselves if NASCAR is a legitimate competition that they want to align with or simply a demolition derby with skinny young drivers. For the next few weeks, there will be many eyeballs watching for Hamlin and/or Logano to mete out justice on track. I sure will be. Does that make me part of the problem, or just human? I’m sure you see the complexities here.
As the NASCAR drama plays out, I’m traveling to California for the Broad Arrow auction and a week of car events on the Monterey Peninsula. Some of my colleagues will also be at the Woodward Dream Cruise. We’ll be reporting from both and you can follow along on Hagerty.com/media and also on our social-media channels.
Have a great weekend!
Larry
P.S.: Your feedback and comments are welcome.
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Great review of the world of NASCAR. Grew up in the good ol days, ahhhh, actually taking a spin in Bill Elliott’s #9 Thunderbird.
I don’t think they should’ve punished him at all. As Larry points out the “put him in the wall” thing is part of what NASCAR is and in this case Dillon had the initiative and he took it. The larger issue is the driver cultivation, also mentioned in the article, they think driving like that is ok but then from the other side they’re upset when they get pushed out of the way, which isn’t logical, if you live by the sword you die by the sword.
I used to be a big fan of NASCAR. Lots of hard racing and at times the front bumper! If a driver didn’t like it they settled their differences in the infield or pits. Reminds me of an automotive version of WWF. Great entertainment but for how many folks and for how long. As a wise many once said, “Show me the money”!
I stopped watching NASCAR quite some time ago. It’s an expensive demolition Derby with silly rules (the phantom yellows just to pack up the field, “overtime” and “playoffs”) and as noted, a culture that encourages unsafe behavior.
As for F1, they need someone to sit down with the rules and the stewards to get some constancy and sanity in the rules. They also need to stop their Euro snobbery and allow an actual American team to participate (as opposed to a token terrible American driver who is on his way out and a token American team whose only American seems to be the owner).
That’s not racing. More like demolition derby. What skill does it take to crash someone else’s car?
I never watch NASCAR anymore. Too bush league. Loved it in the 60s when both the cars and drivers were classy.
He won it fair and square, that’s how Nascar has been for years. If you want computer racing, go to F1.
I spent 30 years in local Solo II competition. I know, small potatoes but so is local dirt track. We all wanted to win, but competitors in the same class would routinely help each. We all know that this kind of behavior is not tolerated in sports car racing. Maybe a one year suspension or even a lifetime ban would get these yahoos to wake up. Will it take another Dale Earnhardt Sr incident to make that happen?
NASCAR created this problem by going to the Green/White/Checker nonsense and stopped having races end at the time when they are supposed to end. If it is a 500-mile race it is over at 500 miles not 501,2, etc… This causes so Unnecessary accidents. The other issue is the “playoff” concept for a champion. You force those that do not have a win to do anything to get one. Again, NASCAR promotes that, just watch the commercials of drivers throwing helmets, punches, etc. It has become a joke for true racing. Go back to the way it was when you competed for a TOTAL season champion based on the SEASON not a made-up playoff format.
If I was a team owner, I would be furious that so many cars are destroyed because of this format.
The last point is it is amazing that Logano and Hamlin, two of the biggest offenders of crashes have become the biggest whiners of the way they won races over the years.
I agree with all of this (though I don’t follow enough to know if the Logano/Hamlin comment is on point).
If the crash had killed Logano how would we be talking about this?
Hockey has a similar neanderthal/tradition thinking around fighting and dirty hits: other sports kick the players out of the game for throwing a punch let alone full-on fighting. Concussion research and lawsuits have curtailed a lot, but some still argue for “good ole’ hockey” even though a dirty hit is a moment of excitement (I guess?) and losing star players to injury harms the game far more than the gain. It also comes down to respecting the humans working for the sport companies.
Nascar would interest me far more if the cars were a %-variance from stock with a rulebook that encouraged the OEM to do strange things (like put amazing engines and suspensions in basic Camries). To my eyes, the last true stock cars raced in the 80s.
One reason it’s turned into a demolition derby is that it’s mostly run on boring ovals. I mean really, lets watch a bunch of cars, that all look the same, go around in a circle for two hours. The only excitement IS the wrecks. The very definition of Destruction Derby.
Good article and insight to NASCAR.
NASCAR lost my interest long ago. The dirtier it gets, the less I like it.
As to F1 vs NASCAR, it’s apples vs oranges. F1 is like golf. Nobody watches it, except rich old white men, but for sponsors, it’s a great demographic. NASCAR on the other hand deals in numbers. BIG numbers. I think that there is one apt analogy; just as Bernie Ecclestone had to leave for F1 to move to the next level, I believe that the total control of NASCAR by the France family has to end. Will racing stay the same? No. Will it make NASCAR a more attractive sport that can compete with stick and ball? Yes. As to the present controversy, I think NASCAR is at a crossroads; will they keep it a traditional sport, true to it’s roots, or will they turn it into “sports entertainment” and follow the WWE model of hype and sensationalism….and scripted results. Scripted? Yes. Right now, there are way too many situations called by officials which decide results. I like the idea of baseball’s model. Have a panel that can be accessed to review situations, and make calls on track, in real time. Nobody wants to see results drag on forever. Sunday is STILL not decided. The appeals panel, the answers to no one could still overturn it. And RCR is making an announcement Sunday. FWIW, I’m a Logano fan. I think he was done wrong. On the other hand, I think his pit road penalty was fully deserved. And, since I’m getting to bitch, can we go back to anothe hallowed NASCAR tradition and keep wives, kids, sponsors and fellow hangers on out of active pits, the racing surface and the race cars themselves. Am I the only one who thinks that burnouts with a 2 year old in your lap is a bad idea?
Too many green, white, checkers is causing winning drivers to lose the point spot.
Dillon has a history of these type of moves. He is a spoiled brat that needs to be punished for being a disrespectful jerk on the racetrack.
??Is there any tradition of real sportsmanship at all in NASCAR, or in professional auto racing in general? Or does the winner just take all? Last lap craziness is not a new or uncommon sin – sometimes it even seems heroic, like something out of the movies – while sometimes it’s more of a sucker punch, with the losers left to lick their wounds. Did Logango just get ahead of Dillon legitimately or did he “have it coming”. Altho Hamil sounds like an innocent bystander, wasn’t he trying to take advantage of the Dillon-Logano contact and get ahead for a last second win? Was this just an bad example of “fighting for the lead”, but a little too hard, and on adrenaline or steroids?
Did Dillon think he would get away with it, or not think at all? Is Dillon really an obvious selfish+greedy young+jaded badboy outlier – or is modern NASCAR known for such hardball-playing, and this is just a particularly photogenic example? What is the specific past history of similar blatant aggression in NASCAR? Are there NO other notable similar recent examples to compare with? Or maybe, were there some older big events in the distant past that went on to cause racers to behave more reasonable previously – so that this current event now stands out as unacceptable?
The issue of causing unnecessary risk of injury or even death to other drivers seems rather crucial. What would the fallout have been if somebody was killed, would it be manslaughter? Dale Sr. was known to be aggressive – was his tragedy similar or just an unfortunate accident?
And if big money is the real i$$ue – why not forfeit Dillon the purse for winning that race – in addition to denying him a post-season playoff spot? Sounds like poor sportsmanship may actually be good for NASCAR by attracting more viewers, at least for the moment. Thanks for your insights – Keep on writing bout driving. / sn