It’s been a dramatic couple of weeks for NASCAR in the wake of Austin Dillon’s controversial win in the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway.
The longtime driver was leading for nearly the entire race before a late caution forced an overtime restart. Dillon led the NASCAR field when the green flag dropped before Joey Logano pulled away for what seemed like a surefire win.
By now, you’ve surely seen what happened next: Dillon sped up around Turn 3 to “bump” Logano into the wall, then right-hooked Denny Hamlin seconds later as his spotter Brandon Benesch yelled “Wreck him!” over the radio.
Needless to say, it wasn’t a good look for NASCAR, which stripped Dillon of an automatic playoff berth and suspended Benesch for three races, which was changed to one upon appeal.
While NASCAR has issued its final ruling, the sport’s top executive is still doing damage control to clean up after Dillon’s mess.
NASCAR president says Dillon ‘crossed the line’ with Richmond win
On this week’s episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, NASCAR president Steve Phelps pulled back the curtain on the decision to penalize Dillon.
“If you hook someone going 170 miles per hour on a mile-and-a-half track, you have crossed the line …” Phelps told Harvick on Thursday’s podcast, which was recorded before Dillon’s appeal was denied on Wednesday.
“We need to make sure that we are keeping our drivers safe. And when you have a situation like that, it’s not safe.”
Phelps added that “it’s hard to hide from the data” that strongly suggested Dillon’s moves were intentional, which left NASCAR with no choice but to drop the hammer on the No. 3 team.
Phelps said NASCAR called an all-driver meeting in the aftermath of the race and discussed the possibility of a same-day penalty in future instances like this.
READ MORE: Elton Sawyer explains why Austin Dillon kept his controversial NASCAR win after playoff exclusion
In this case, the governing body took its time reviewing the situation and ultimately deemed it necessary to issue a 25-point penalty to Dillon’s team and strip him of an automatic playoff berth.
“If we hadn’t penalized it, then I think what we would see over the next 12 weeks would look significantly different,” Phelps said. “We just can’t have it.”
He’s absolutely right, too. Minutes after the race ended, both Logano and Hamlin hinted at taking matters into their own hands to ensure Dillon didn’t advance far in the postseason. They surely weren’t the only ones who would have taken issue with the No. 3 car racing for a championship.
Phelps said it ultimately came down to what NASCAR wants its sport to be. And it’s not what we saw on the final lap at Richmond.
“We’re not demolition derby, we’re just not,” Phelps said. “We are a sport that if we had done nothing, we would have opened ourselves up for a mess, honestly.”
Dillon, RCR still fighting for playoff life
As a result of the penalties, Dillon is the only driver with a win this season who isn’t slated to race in the NASCAR playoffs, which start Sept. 8 at Atlanta.
While the sport has issued its final ruling, Richard Childress Racing will appeal that decision to the Final Appeal Officer on Monday in a last-ditch effort to secure a spot in the postseason.
Assuming that fails, Dillon will need to muster a little more magic on the track – without the “demolition derby” part – to earn a seat at the table.
He has two more chances to clinch one of the final spots in the field. The first is Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, the same track where Dillon famously wrecked Aric Almirola on the last lap to win the 2018 Daytona 500.
If he doesn’t win that race (and he’s a major long shot), his final chance will come Sept. 1 at Darlington Raceway, where he’s never led a lap in 16 career races.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Austin Dillon from NASCAR from career stats to his reality show